


How to get along with your enemies after being literally forced into it?

by bloopy



Series: Stories I write due to random bouts of inspiration [1]
Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Gen, Iwaizumi is always a good senpai, Kyoutani Is The Best, Oikawa Tooru is a Good senpai, Slice of Life, The First Years Are All Adorable, except kenma, he only has eyes for hinata, he's trying, kageyama gets adopted by all the setters, kageyama makes friends again, learning to get along with your enemies, sometimes, the timeline may be messed up a bit for plot purposes
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-12-21
Updated: 2021-01-17
Packaged: 2021-03-10 17:46:56
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 14
Words: 27,747
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28211115
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bloopy/pseuds/bloopy
Summary: Only a week after their defeat to Karasuno at Spring Prelims, Aoba Johsai's volleyball team suffers the loss of their precious gym in a mysterious fire. With nowhere to practice, they try reaching out to other schools only to be rejected. Then, one school steps up and offers to take them in, unfortunately that school is also the reason for their defeat. Will Aoba Johsai and Karasuno be able to get along while one team is preparing for spring nationals? Will they find out who was behind this whole mess in the first place? Will Daichi ever find peace? (spoiler alert the answer is no)Featuring a suffering Daichi, Suga and Oikawa getting along way too well, Tsukishima making friends?????, and the second years becoming a force to be reckoned with.(Also Hinata may be using this situation to make Kageyama friends with his old middle school team again but it proves harder than expected if both sides are determined to ruin his bonding plans)(title may change later if I think of something better)
Series: Stories I write due to random bouts of inspiration [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2066586
Comments: 39
Kudos: 100





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

> Do I have another story to be working on? Yes. Am I procrastinating because inspiration suddenly struck and I finally have winter break? Also yes.

Oikawa woke up at the sound of his 5am alarm. Sure, he wasn’t officially playing volleyball anymore (thanks Karasuno and Shiratorizawa), but he still needed to keep in shape for when he starts playing in the big leagues next year. He got up, brushed his teeth and changed into his workout gear as quietly as possible so as not to wake his parents. Eventually he went downstairs and opened the door.

“Yahoo~ Iwa-chan! I thought I was going to have to drag you out of your house again!”

“Shut up trashykawa I told you I slept late last time that’s all. Now hurry up, it’s a weekend and I don’t want the track to get filled up with other people because we left late.” Iwaizumi was dressed in his own workout gear, with his trademark growl on his face.

They had been jogging together for years and easily fell into step with each other, Oikawa a half step before Iwaizumi and Iwaizumi always following wherever Oikawa decides to lead them for the day.

After a few blocks Iwaizumi realized where they were going. “Oi why are we going to the school?” Iwaizumi puffed out between breaths, the cold October air making his breath visible. 

“I don’t actually know. I just felt like this path today!” Ever cheerful, Oikawa turned around and grinned at his best friend.

Iwaizumi rolled his eyes and kept running, picking up the pace as Oikawa did. He became lost in his own world to the point where he failed to notice his surroundings, consequently he crashed into Oikawa who had stopped in the middle of the sidewalk. Iwaizumi was about to yell when he noticed his friends gaze captured by something. Following it, he saw that his friend was looking across the street at their school, particularly the gym for the volleyball club.

Only there was no gym anymore. Just rubble and smoke.

The two teens stared in horror, as they watched a firefighter talking to their coaches and Principal. Coach Irihata noticed them from across the street and got a pained look on his face as he slowly shook his head.

At that moment they realized, their precious volleyball club, the one they gave their three years of high school to, had been completely destroyed.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Informing the other team members of the situation and hoping that their coaches give them good news. Also Kyoutani has strong feelings about the club, who knew?

After a few minutes of shock, the firefighters leave, and they notice their coach beckoning them over. Numbly, they walk across the street and catch the end of what their principal was saying.

“-Unfortunately it’s likely too much for the insurance to cover so suddenly. My sincerest apologies. We will reconvene tomorrow to discuss this further.” The Principal nods his head to all of them and gets in his car. Coach Irihata finally looks at the boys trying to think of something to say. Coach Mizoguchi, standing next to him staring at the ruins, finally says: “I know you boys have a lot of questions. Unfortunately we only got here 15 minutes ago and we’re not too sure what's going on or what will happen either.”

Iwaizumi nods in understanding and asks: “Coach…If the insurance can’t cover the costs…what’s going to happen to the club?”

The coach sighs, suddenly looking so much older than his 52 years, “Iwaizumi I honestly don’t know the answer to that question. We’re lucky someone spotted the fire before it burned down anything else in the school. For now I think what's best is to gather all the members to make sure they’re updated before they show up for morning practice tomorrow. Do you boys think you can do it for me?”

Oikawa nodded as Iwaizumi pulled his phone out to send a message to the group chat asking all the first line members for a meeting. After a few more minutes of standing around, looking at the smoldering remains blocked off by ‘do not cross’ tape, the four decided it was time to leave.

* * *

The walk back to Iwaizumi’s house was silent, each too absorbed in their own thoughts to even attempt a conversation. Finally they got back to Iwaizumi’s house and each sat on a couch waiting until 10, when the others would show up.

After some time, Oikawa decided to break the silence. “Do you think Ushiwaka did it?”

Iwaizumi didn’t bother giving him an answer, simply looking up at his best friend with the most incredulous look he could muster. Still, Oikawa pushed on:

“I mean come on Iwa-chan! We all know he wants me to join Shiratorizawa! Maybe this was his genius plan to do it! Well not so genius because it destroyed our practice space, but you get what I mean-”

“Trashykawa despite what your fangirls may have you believe, you are _not_ the center of the world.”

Oikawa let out a scandalized gasp and began to attack Iwaizumi with a pillow. Eventually this led to wrestling on the living room floor.

“Well isn’t this scandalous.” A teasing voice said above them. Iwaizumi grunted and twisted until he was sitting on top of Oikawa.

“Hi Mattsun and Makki. How’d you get in?” Oikawa said from his place underneath Iwaizumi.

“Iwaizumi’s mom always keeps the spare key in the same place man. It’s not rocket science.” Matsukawa rolled his eyes as he helped up his captain and vice-captain.

The four finally settled down with Matsukawa and Hanamaki waiting in anticipation for what the emergency meeting was called for. Oikawa and Iwaizumi shared a look before Oikawa said:

“Sorry you guys, but we’re not saying anything until the others get here.”

Matsukawa and Hanamaki looked at each other realizing that it had to be something important because this was the first time they had ever seen Oikawa look so…broken.

* * *

An hour of video games later, they finally welcomed Kyoutani, the last member to arrive. With everyone sat on the couches, Oikawa and Iwaizumi stood up and faced the others looking at each other wondering how to begin this. Finally Iwaizumi decided the best way to deliver this bad news was just to rip off the Band-Aid.

“Oikawa and I ran by school this morning. When we got there, there was a firefighter talking to the coaches and principal. What we know is there was a fire in the school and the volleyball clubroom and courts have been completely destroyed. They don’t know how the fire started yet.” Iwaizumi spoke in a flat, monotone voice leaving no doubt in everyone’s minds that the situation was more serious than he was letting on.

Everyone sat in silence, unable to fully comprehend what they just heard. Kunimi and Watari stared at the floor. Kindaichi’s shoulders began to shake slightly. Yahaba covered his face because he could feel himself tearing up and didn’t want anyone to see. Matsukawa and Hanamaki stared open mouthed at their friends. Kyoutani growled slightly, his fists tightly clenched. Finally someone raised a shaking hand. “Yes Kin-chan?” Oikawa asked softly.

“Was anyone hurt? No one could have been at school that early right?” The third years smiled softly at each other knowing their kouhai is the type to worry about others before himself. Oikawa noticed that the first years in particular looked particularly shaken up, so he moved and sat in between them.

“Don’t worry. There was no one at school, and a passerby noticed the fire before it spread to other parts of the school. We called you all here to make sure you knew what to expect instead of showing up to morning practice.” He wrapped his arms around the first years, both of them leaning into their senpai’s warmth.

“What does this mean for practice for the rest of the year? I mean we need to start practicing for interhigh from now. And we need to start working on our playing style without you third years. There’s so many things to be done before next year if we’re ever going to have the chance to beat Karasuno and Shiratori!” Yahaba’s voice grew steadily higher as he began to think about all the plans he had made as future captain, how those plans seemed to clearly be ruined now with no guarantee for the future.

Everyone was silent as they realized Yahaba had a point, and practice needed to continue if they wanted any hope for next year. “Coach is going to have a meeting with the Principal tomorrow. He’s not going to leave you guys to go into next year unprepared Yahaba. Don’t worry.” Iwaizumi rubbed his face not sure how to bring up what he and Oikawa heard about the insurance to the others without making them even more upset.

Silence grew once again in the living room as everyone became absorbed in their own thoughts. Eventually Kyoutani got up saying:

“I don’t know about you guys, but I refuse to go down without a fight. We will find a place to practice no matter what. I refuse to lose to those guys again.” He turned around and walked out of Iwaizumi’s house, deep in thought.

Yahaba and Watari nodded at each other as they too got up from their seats. Goodbyes were exchanged and eventually, only the third years were left. Hanamaki finally said:  
  


“Well, looks like we’ll just have to see what coach says tomorrow huh.” The others nodded and prepared themselves for a very distracted Sunday.

* * *

The next day, Oikawa couldn’t focus in class. He didn’t know what was worse, not knowing the outcome of his coach’s meeting, or the pitying looks he got from everyone in school about the ‘poor volleyball team that can't practice anymore’ or ‘oh it’s not like they needed the building anyways seeing as they have no more matches for the season’. That last comment really made his blood boil. 

By the time the last class was over his nerves were fried to the point where he almost snapped at Iwaizumi when he tapped his shoulder behind him.

“Chill Oikawa it’s just me. Come on let’s see what coach has to say. Or do you need a minute before you see the others?”

“Let’s just get this over with.” Oikawa fell into step beside his friend and they walked downstairs to where everyone, both starting members and general members, were waiting.

Coach Irihata looked up at them as they came down the stairs. “How about we take this outside boys, let’s give ourselves some privacy.” The others nodded noticing that some students had gathered on the edges of the corridor hoping to hear the fate of their volleyball club.

Once they got to the outside pitches away from the school, they sat down in a circle and waited for one of their coaches to speak.

“I will not lie to you. The situation is not good. Other than the fact that we have to wait for the fire department to finish investigating why this happened before we can start to rebuild, we’ve also been told that the school’s insurance is unlikely to cover this much damage due to legal reasons that I don't have time to get into right now.” Coach Irihata looked at all the faces, their expressions ranging from tears to uncontrolled anger.

Coach Mizoguchi added once he noticed the first years close to crying: “Before you completely loose hope, we are working with the school on securing a place for you all to continue practice. We don’t plan on giving up on this club as long as you guys are willing to stay. On the other hand, we do understand that this is going to be very abnormal and require a lot of dedication on your part. That is why, if you do not want to continue to be a part of this please know that no one will judge or blame you if you leave the club.”

Everyone sat silently, no one wanting to be the first to say something. Finally, Heisuke Shido, one of the non-starting members stood up. “Coach Irihata, Coach Mizoguchi. Thank you both for all these years. Everyone else, I’ll see you guys around.” He turned around and walked back to the school. Slowly, the other members began to follow him until finally, the only ones left were the 9 starting members.

Kyoutani then stood up, Yahaba and Watari exchanging panicked glances. Kyoutani noticed this and rolled his eyes. “Would you crybabies relax I'm not going to quit while we still have to get revenge. Coaches, this is me telling you guys that I’m sticking around, no matter what happens.” The others grinned in surprise at his sudden attitude change, realizing the Karasuno game must've humbled him more than they thought, and repeated his affirmation. All members left were still feeling the bitterness from their loss last week, now their new loss this week further fueled their desires to get better and stronger.

Coach Irihata sighed with relief knowing that it would take a lot more than a small fire to break the spirit of his boys. After some lighthearted jesting he dismissed them all and began to think of the next problem. Where on Earth were they going to find a place to practice on such short notice?


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Being told you're gonna have to work with your enemies isn't fun for anyone.

The same time Aoba Johsai was having their after-school meeting, Tsukishima walked into the gym carrying his phone.

“Oi Tsukishima! No phones out during practice you know better!” Coach Ukai yelled out as he noticed the blonde’s distracted expression. To his surprise, Tsukishima didn’t put the phone away, instead he walked up to Takeda-sensei and showed him something on his phone. Takeda-sensei let out a shocked gasp and quickly stopped practice to gather everyone around.

“What’s wrong Take-chan?” Tanaka asked noticing his teacher looking really pale.

“Tsukishima-kun could you please tell the others what you just showed me?”

Tsukishima rolled his eyes but obliged his teacher. “I got a message from my mom just now with a news article. Apparently, Aoba Johsai had a fire in their school that completely destroyed the volleyball gyms and clubroom. It happened super early yesterday morning, so no one was there to get hurt, but it doesn’t look like they're going to be able to play anytime soon.”

Everyone was silent. Eventually Coach Ukai clapped his hands loudly, “Alright guys nationals ain’t going to win themselves. What happened in Aoba Johsai was upsetting but theres nothing we can do except offer our condolences. Now let’s get back to work.”

“Yes sir!”

“Yo specs,” Coach Ukai turned to look at Takeda when the kids were playing a practice match, “d’you think we should reach out to Irihata and Mizoguchi and see if there’s anything we could do?”

“Oh Ukai-kun I think that’s a great idea. I’m going to give them a couple of days so they can calm down and hopefully start thinking about what they may need before going to see them personally. Coach Irihata is a very accomplished man though, so I am sure he has some ideas of what to do already!”

* * *

“Mizoguchi……I have no idea what to do right now.” Coach Irihata sighed with his head in his hands as he opened another email. His fellow coach agreed with his sentiment. It had been a week since the fire, and so far, they had not been able to find a place for their students to practice. They could see them growing more and more anxious each time they saw one of them in the hallways and knew it was only a matter of time before even their most loyal members would come showing resignation forms if they couldn’t solve this issue soon. 

“Did you try asking Jouzenji again? They told us to email after a couple of days didn’t they.”

“That was the email I just opened. Apparently, they don’t have enough room, just like every other school in this prefecture. The only ones left that I haven’t tried at all are _those two_.”

“Well, I can see why you wouldn’t want to ask Shiratorizawa after all these years of animosity, but Karasuno may still work?”

“Think about it Mizoguchi. Do you really think it’s fair of me to ask those boys to practice alongside the team that not only defeated them, but also the one rival they never could beat in three years of gameplay? Not to mention, Karasuno are preparing for Spring Nationals, I don’t think they have time to indulge a falling powerhouse school team.”

Coach Mizoguchi was now the one with his head in his hands as he realized they truly were running out of options. They had promised the team an update tomorrow and were only going to give them disappointment.

There was suddenly a knock on the door and one of the security guards walked in. “Good Afternoon Coaches. There’s a man from another school here to see you. Should I let him in?”

Sitting up they both looked at each other with newfound energy in their eyes. “Yes send him in right away thank you so much!” Coach Irihata exclaimed. They were hoping it was good news, and couldn’t wait to tell the team tomorrow about the kind school that would help them out!

* * *

“No.”

“Oikawa-”

“I refuse to do it.”

“Oikawa-san please!”

“I am not going to go grovel to Karasuno and Tobio-chan to play volleyball! I refuse!”

Yahaba was at his wit’s end. He knew this wasn’t going to end well when Coach Irihata told them the name of the one school that had agreed to take them in for practices. Kindaichi and Kunimi got a sour look on their faces, Iwaizumi had looked mildly troubled, Oikawa waited until the second the Coaches left before loudly beginning his protests.

Finally, it seemed that other members of the club were fed up as well.

“Oikawa-san, this is all we have. Unless you would rather go to Shiratorizawa and beg them, we have to work with Karasuno. Also whether we like it or not, they're the ones going to Spring Nationals so they’re the best option if we want serious training. You don’t even have to speak to Kageyama! Just be there with us and only talk to us and the Coaches!”

“Watachi I’m going to pretend you didn’t say that. How am I supposed to practice when little Tobio-chan is staring at me with his smug little smile from across the court! He’s probably laughing at our misfortune right now!”

“Oikawa-san I highly doubt that even Kageyama would do something like that.” Watari tried to reason, but to this day he and the other members didn’t know what happened with those four and Kageyama other than the unflattering descriptions given to them by Oikawa and Kindaichi.

(Across the prefecture, Kageyama sneezed twice in succession before biting into a meat bun causing Sugawara to fuss over his kouhai who seemed to be coming down with a cold.)

As Oikawa tried to open his mouth to further argue with Watari and Yahaba, Iwaizumi reached over to smack him, but before he could, another voice called out:

“Ya know, last time I checked, Yahaba was now the captain of this team. Not you.” Everyone froze, turning around to look at Kyoutani who was biting into some chicken strips.

Yahaba turned red and tried to stutter out an apology to Oikawa but before he could, Oikawa’s face hardened as he stared down Kyoutani.

“Well well well. It looks like Mad Dog-chan brought his fangs today. Seeing as he’s absolutely right, I have no need to be here anymore. Goodbye to you all.” Oikawa turned on his heel and walked out of the empty classroom they were gathered in, leaving silence in his wake.

Iwaizumi sighed and turned to Kyoutani. “I get why you said it I really do. But at the end of the day, that was still a line that shouldn’t have been crossed. He truly does care and wants you guys to continue playing it’s just hard. I'm going to go talk to him, see you guys later.”

Iwaizumi hurried out after Oikawa, knowing that he was the only one who could see how close Oikawa was to breaking down into tears, only holding back for the sake of his kouhai. He himself wasn’t feeling too pleased about the situation, his failure as an ace still haunting him especially after their coach’s words just now: “ _We tried asking the school for spare funding to go to a paid area for daily practice, but unfortunately they said that because repairs are expensive, and the volleyball team had never made it to National’s, it wasn’t on their priorities right now.”_

That fact hurt. If they were good enough to win, then they wouldn’t need to beg other schools for help. Iwaizumi continued towards his neighborhood knowing that as bad as he was feeling, Oikawa felt 10x worse because of being the captain that in his eyes, constantly failed his team, even if no one thought that. Sighing, Iwaizumi began to slow down and look for his best friend to hopefully pull him out of the mental hole he had probably dug himself into by now.

Meanwhile after Iwaizumi and Oikawa ran out, Yahaba turned to Kyoutani.

“You know I’m right.”

“There were better ways to say it!”

“Whatever. I guess I’ll apologize later if it makes you happy.” Yahaba sighed knowing it would take a lot more to convince Kyoutani that while he was right, there were still boundaries.

“Moving on from that. I want to try. I’m going to Karasuno tomorrow with Coach. I won’t force anyone to come with me. If you want to come tomorrow, then come. If not, I won’t kick you off the team but if you’re a first or second year, you need to figure out how you’re going to practice on your own.” He turned to the other third years left, “If you’re a third year that decides to quit the club now, then I thank you for your legacy. We’ll make you guys proud.” With that, Yahaba nodded to each of them and walked out, the others soon following.

* * *

That evening, 9 boys lay in their beds, each of them deep in thought.

Oikawa was still mulling over Kyoutani’s words, knowing logically that he was right, and he should be supporting Yahaba, but the pain of losing to his old kouhai was still too fresh-too raw for him to be able to make his peace with it.

Iwaizumi missed playing more than anything, but his failures as an ace to lead his team to victory three years in a row kept him from seeing anything but the negatives of an idea like this, so he resolved to work with Oikawa to try and find an alternate solution to this situation that didn’t involve relying on Karasuno.

Hanamaki wondered if he should even continue to play, after all, he was a third year, and no one would blame him if he quit now.

Matsukawa wanted to make good memories with his friends in his final year, unfortunately it looked like they were gearing up for a year that would never want to be remembered by anyone.

Yahaba was exhausted thinking of what tomorrow would hold, but he stood by his decision knowing that without practice, they had no hope.

Watari replayed his conversation with Oikawa, wondering if his senpai would come tomorrow even if he already felt like he knew the answer to that.

Kyoutani felt guilty over the heartbreak he saw in both Oikawa and Iwaizumi’s eyes, but he knew that if no one called them out, then the rest of the team would suffer for it.

Kunimi didn’t want to go through the pain of having to mediate between Kageyama and Kindaichi, so he already knew what he was going to pick even if it led to Yahaba and Watari being disappointed in him.

Kindachi was livid-he had said nothing after the announcement for fear of drawing Kyoutani’s harsh words to himself, but he knew that staying in a gym with the king of the court again, was like his worst nightmare coming true.

Eventually all 9 boys drifted off into a fitful sleep.

.

.

.

“Oh no!!!” Takeda shot up in his bed. He realized he had forgotten to do something very important today: tell his team who was showing up to practice tomorrow. Looks like tomorrow was going to be an interesting day after all.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> okayyy so hopefully that's enough of the sad stuff. Stay tuned for who actually decides to go to Karasuno and the shenanigans that end up happening!


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The teams finally have their first practice together and new friendships are beginning to blossom!

“Gather ‘round everyone! Takeda-sensei has an important announcement!” Daichi clapped his hands to stop everyone’s warmups for morning practice.

“Alright everyone. I apologize for the short notice, but it completely slipped my mind,” Takeda took a deep breath to try and figure out how he was going to tell them the news, “I’m assuming you all remember what happened to Aoba Johsai’s volleyball gyms and clubrooms?”

Everyone nodded.

“Coach and I were discussing was to help, and after I went to see their own coaches yesterday, we came to the agreement that until their gym is rebuilt or their school gives them an alternate solution, we will host them here in our gym for afternoon practices.” Takeda closed his eyes in anticipation of the blow up. As he expected, it came from the second years first.

“WAIT WHAT IF THEY TAKE ADVANTAGE TO STEAL ALL OUR TACTICS!” Tanaka yelled out and with Nishinoya yelling his agreement. This statement started a bunch of side conversations that Takeda couldn’t keep up with about whether this was even allowed, and what if this meant they couldn’t practice properly for Spring Nationals either. Takeda sighed; he knew he would probably face some resistance but he hoped they could see the good that they are doing for the other team.

“EVERYONE SHUT IT!” Daichi finally had enough.

“Now if anyone has any objections, say them calmly and we will discuss this as a team. The decision has already been made so it would be rude to back out now.”

Hinata raised his hand and said: “I don’t think we should be complaining. I mean if I was told I couldn’t play volleyball because of a fire in the gym I’d be pretty upset too! Besides, we practiced together with Nekoma and Fukorodani and the other schools in Tokyo and we learned from them, right? So I don’t see what the big deal is as long as we get to continue playing volleyball!”

There was silence in the gym as everyone mulled over Hinata’s words. Realizing he had a point and that the destruction of their own gym would be unimaginably devastating, everyone’s fiery tempers calmed down as they slowly nodded and returned to practice.

Kageyama felt someone pulling his sleeve until he found himself in the corner of the gym with Yamaguchi and Hinata who had also probably dragged over Yachi and Tsukishima.

“What’s going on?”

“Hinata and I want to make sure you’re okay with this.”

“Yeah I mean the Grand King is going to be there! And Onion Head! And the other one too! Are you gonna be okay?”

Kageyama paused for a second, in reality when Takeda-sensei had said the new plan, he had been trying to not think about seeing his old teammates again on the daily. Now that they brought it up, he couldn’t help but wonder if they would be silently judging him the entire time. He didn’t get anxious often but now he was starting to feel a little nervous.

“Oh please. His highness has the most atrocious social skills imaginable. Why are you guys talking like he's going to have conversations with them? He's probably going to just stay in one side of the court and those guys will stay on the other side seeing as they're not much better than he is.” Tsukishima rolled his eyes when he noticed Kagyeama’s breath start to speed up like Yamaguchi’s when he was about to have a panic attack.

Everyone stared at Tsukishima surprised that his insult was actually calming Kageyama down.

“What? Do you know how annoying it would be if we messed up at nationals because our setter couldn’t stop panicking during all our practices?” The others all laughed as Yachi made a note in her notebook to make sure to keep Kageyama’s interactions with the other team as minimal as possible.

Across the gym, the third years looked at their youngest members who had begun to laugh after Tsukishima said something. Sugawara smiled at the others, “I guess we were worried for no reason. It looks like Kageyama will be just fine. But we’ll still keep an eye on him just in case.” The others nodded their assent.

* * *

Yahaba looked around, he wasn’t particularly surprised that him and Watari were the only ones waiting outside the school next to the minivan the coaches had brought, but he had hoped that at the very least Kyoutani would show up.

Coach Irihata sighed, “Well Yahaba, I’m going to go start the car. We’ll give them five more minutes and otherwise we’ll get going. It’s only a 20-minute drive to Karasuno if we leave now and I don’t want to keep them waiting.” Coach Mizoguchi nodded and opened the passenger seat to sit next to his colleague.

Yahaba and Watari exchanged glances of defeat. Finally as they were about to get in, they heard yelling.

“Yo coach! Wait for us!” Hanamaki yelled out as he ran with his gym bag, Matsukawa running alongside him.

They opened the doors of the car and grinned, pleased that at least two of their senpai had decided to show up. Just as they were about to close the door, a hand stopped it from closing and Kyoutani walked in holding his chicken tenders and daring anyone to say anything. Yahaba just grinned and watched as his senpai made a game of trying to sneak away the rest of the chicken when Kyoutani wasn’t looking.

* * *

They parked in the school’s parking lot some time later. Yahaba was reminded that Karasuno was a public high school unlike their own private school when he saw the size of their gym. He suddenly felt a rush of overwhelming gratitude that Karasuno, who owed them nothing, had chosen to give up some of their limited space for their enemies to practice. Yahaba swore he was going to make the most of it, that their kindness wasn’t going to go to waste.

When they entered the gym, the first thing they saw was all 12 members lined up with the managers off to the side, while the coaches and teaching assistants all greeted each other, the players stared at each other wordlessly. Yahaba felt like he should say something, that’s what a captain is supposed to do right? But the words were caught in his throat as he struggled to think of anything to say.

“Welcome to Karasuno. The circumstances are unusual, but we hope to have good practices with you. If you need anything or have any questions let me know. Oh yeah, my name is Daichi Sawamura but you can call me Daichi.” The captain stepped forward with an easygoing smile on his face and shook the hands of the Aoba Johsai players. He wanted to ask why there were only five people but felt that it was probably not the right time. Eventually, everyone started to introduce themselves as well as their year and position and once that was done, the coaches called for attention.

“Alright everyone. Now this is all very unusual, but we are going to make the most of it. For the sake of getting to school on time Aoba Johsai will only be joining in on afternoon practices on weekdays. During the weekend, they will come to the gym earlier than us to have a couple of hours of solo practice for themselves seeing as they can't have solo morning practice and then we will join at our usual weekend practice timings. Most of the time though, we will be together and will practice mostly together. Coach Irihata has agreed to follow along with our training but I am telling both him and the rest of you to not be shy if you have any training suggestions. Now let’s get started!”

Everyone yelled out their assent. The Aoba Johsai players went to the clubroom to get changed and when they came back, the team was doing set and block drills, with a couple of the other members at the sides working on their own. They stood off to the side not sure what they were supposed to do. Finally, Coach Ukai decided if these kids were going to be awkward, he should try to break the ice.

“Yo second year. You’re a setter, right?” Yahaba nodded and walked over to the coach.

“Alright so Kageyama is going to take the setter position for the first part of the drill, then it’ll be your turn. Don’t worry about Sugawara he’s working on his own thing.” Yahaba looked over to the third-year reserve setter who grinned at him and went back to doing some fancy ball hitting.

“Oi bed head middle blocker!” Coach Ukai yelled out. Matsukawa and Hanamaki paused from their conversation and Matsukawa pointed at himself questioningly.

“Yeah you, the guy that needs to learn how to use a comb! Get over here!” Hanamaki doubled over in laughter as Matsukawa jogged to the Karasuno coach trying not to look too embarrassed. Coach Irihata was never this insulting to them and he could see him trying not to laugh.

“What’s up coach?”

“Go stand with Tsukishima over there. Tall, blonde, glasses kid. You’ll be blocking with him. Libero you’re going to switch out with Noya halfway through and you other two get in line! This isn’t social hour its volleyball hour!” Everyone grinned as Coach Ukai and his brash insults made the other team feel at ease. Finally after an hour of drills everyone was sitting around for break.

The Aoba Johsai team had sat together when suddenly they heard a squeak.

“Um w-would you guys like any water?” The small first year manager was holding a pack of water bottles that were close to falling with the amount of shaking she was doing.

Yahaba grinned. “Thanks Yachi-san! That’s really nice of you!” He tried to wink at her like he had seen his senpai do with girls in their class and that caused her to blush even more and drop the water.

“Oh no I’m so sorry! The water spilled! Oh I'm so clumsy I'm never going to be able to get a job, then I’ll be homeless, then I'm going to live in a cardboard box, and I could get eaten by rats!” She started to freak out as the boys watched her unsure of what to do.

“You should just ignore Yahaba. He's an idiot.” Kyoutani grumbled out as he gave her the water bottles.

“OI!”

Yachi giggled as Yahaba began to be teased by the rest of his teammates. Someone took the bottles from her and she looked up at Kyoutani questioningly.

“You did enough I can hand out the rest to these clowns.” Yachi squeaked out her thanks and ran back to Kiyoko who was silently laughing at the proceedings.

As the others were drinking, Matsukawa nudged Hanamaki and they got up walking to a particular player.

“Yo blondie. What's good?”

Tsukishima glared at the two third years wondering if he was just a magnet for annoying third years or if Kuroo had somehow planned for him to be constantly harassed by upperclassmen.

“What do you want?”

“Now now no need to be so harsh. We just wanted to ask you something.”

Yamaguchi was about to walk over to Tsukishima but Daichi stopped him wanting to see what would happen.

“It’s not like I can stop you from asking. So please ask away so I can get back to my drink.”

Hanamaki grinned. He was starting to like this salty first year and could see why Matsukawa dragged him over here.

“So first year, I heard you managed to fully shut out Ushiwaka.”

“What like it’s supposed to be hard?” It was very hard, but Tsukishima wasn’t about to admit that to strange new upperclassmen.

“I mean he is the number two ace in the country for a reason. Couldn’t have been too easy.” Hanamaki added onto his friends’ question.

“You're making it sound like winning against the team is impossible.” Tsukishima paused and looked up smirking, “Oh wait…”

Hanamaki and Matsukawa stared at him open mouthed.

Matsukawa burst out laughing and slung his arm around Tsukishima, Hanamaki followed from the other side essentially trapping the first year between them.

“Now first year, don’t you know you have to have more respect for your senpai?”

“Not when they have hair that either looks like cotton candy or looks like it hasn’t been washed in a year.”

Tsukishima wasn’t usually this rude to upperclassmen but these two reminded him of a rooster haired captain that always got on his nerves making his sarcasm come out in full blow.

The coaches watched the laughter coming from that end of the court as Tsukishima began to try and get out of the grip of the third years and looked around noticing that the players were starting to mill together. Hinata was jumping around Kyoutani and Tanaka who were having a staring contest, Nishinoya and Watari were discussing their favorite libero moves (Coach Ukai heard Nishinoya say something about ultimate rolling thunder and hoped Watari had more sense than to encourage that), and to everyone’s biggest surprise, Yahaba and Kageyama had started up a conversation with each other with Yahaba grinning at the tall first year and Kageyama looking very intrigued.

Coach Irihata smiled, knowing that these boys were probably going to get along just fine. (Now if only he could convince _those four_ to suck it up and come along too.)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I headcannon that Coach Ukai's bonding method with teenagers is to give them insulting nicknames and see their reactions because it reminds him of his grandpa coaching him.


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Learning to get along! And Kags finally interacts with some of his old teammates!

The teams fell into a routine over the next week, with the five boys from Aoba Johsai rushing to the front of the school as soon as classes ended to get to practice as soon as possible. Practices were spent either playing matches with teams mixed with Karasuno players or focusing on whatever drill the coaches had designed for the day. Each player was starting to make new friends as well.

Matsukawa and Hanamaki had decided to make it their mission to annoy Tsukishima as much as possible each practice, leading to the blonde trying to think of new ways to escape. (It never worked, so he eventually accepted his fate and prayed Kuroo and Bokuto never met these two otherwise he would never know peace.)

Kyoutani had, to everyone’s enormous surprise, become friends with Yachi. They had run into each other at the supermarket one day and he helped get groceries off the high shelves, then when Yachi saw him getting attacked by his adorable little sister she realized what a softie he was and became much less scared around him. (He swore her to secrecy though, he had a reputation to maintain after all.)

Yahaba and Kageyama got along very well mostly because of Yahaba’s interest in learning how to do Kageyama’s floating set. By extension this meant he became friends with Sugawara who was required to translate Kageyama’s thoughts into actual words. (Yahaba still doesn’t know how a set can go boom and then kaswish but he's working on it.)

Watari had become friends with Nishinoya who was trying to teach him rolling thunder, excited to pass on his skills to a fellow libero. (Watari didn’t know how to tell him he wasn’t going to ever use it in a match because it was just not his style, but the enthusiasm was contagious.)

The coaches were pleased, and Coach Ukai was glad that this didn’t cut into his plans for Spring Nationals training.

All in all, things were going well enough except for one problem.

* * *

Yahaba was walking through the cafeteria looking for Watari when he noticed Kindaichi and Kunimi sitting off to the side. He was surprised to see them considering they had been actively avoiding him after the announcement of going to Karasuno for fear of getting pressured into joining. Finally Yahaba decided that enough was enough and he remembered the words Daichi had told him yesterday when he asked for advice. ‘ _At the end of the day, you’re the captain and that sometimes means you have to be harsh and set boundaries. If you can’t work together off the court, I don’t see how you're going to work together on the court either.’_

Steeling his nerves, he walked up to their table. “Kindaichi, Kunimi. Good afternoon.”

The first years both looked at each other nervously, knowing that it was only a matter of time before they would have to have this conversation.

“Yahaba-san. Hello.” Kindaichi answered softly, avoiding the captain’s gaze.

“You both know what I want from you so let’s skip that part. I want you both to answer me honestly, other than Kageyama’s presence, what is stopping you from coming to Karasuno with us for practice?” Yahaba sat on one of the empty chairs next to Kunimi who was leaning against the wall practically asleep.

Kindaichi and Kunimi paused and stared at each other. Neither of them were sure what to say to a question like that.

Yahaba noticing their hesitation plowed on. “So if Kageyama wasn’t involved then you both would show up to practice, right?”

“I suppose so.” Kindaichi said with some hesitation, unsure how exactly Yahaba was planning to get rid of Kageyama.

“Alright well due to the agreement with our coaches, we have the Karasuno gym all to ourseleves from 9:30 in the morning till 12 in the afternoon on Saturday so we can get our own solo practice. If you both want to stay on the team then please show up to that at the very least. You can leave when Karasuno comes I won’t stop you.”

Kindaichi and Kunimi exchanged glances with each other before Kunimi finally said: “Alright then. I suppose it wouldn’t hurt, after all, we could use all the practice we can get.”

Yahaba thanked them and grinned as he rushed over to Watari to tell him the good news, he couldn’t wait until Saturday when his team would finally start to come together and so would his plan.

Hanamaki and Matsukawa were both overjoyed when they heard their adorable little first years had gotten a slight change of heart and decided to join Saturday practice, now if only their year mates could do the same. Unfortunately when they even hinted at the idea, Oikawa would very loudly move to another topic and Iwaizumi would just shake his head at them. They knew they’d have to find a way to convince Oikawa and then Iwaizumi would follow. But first, they'd see how Saturday goes.

* * *

On Saturday Coach Irihata was overjoyed to see two more members and watch the old team dynamic slowly come together. After two and a half hours of practice, the boys were taking a break before the Karasuno team would show up. Kindaichi and Kunimi had lost track of the time due to the clock on the wall being broken, otherwise they would have begun making their way out. Unfortunately they realized their mistake too late when a loud voice barged into the gym.

“YAHABROOOO!”

Yahaba was tackled by Tanaka and Nishinoya with a lot of enthusiasm. As he struggled to get off, Watari began to laugh which prompted Nishinoya to grab his leg and drag him into the pile as well.

“Come on you idiots get off them so you can ask properly.” Ennoshita’s calm voice said from above.

“Ask us both what?” the two looked at each other curiously.

“Actually we wanted to ask all three of you something.” Ennoshita looked over at Kyoutani who stared back with interest.

“My older brother managed to get tickets to that super large movie exhibition happening today over at Johzenji. He won 10 tickets and took two of them and gave me the other 8. So we decided to ask the three of you if you want to go after practice with us, as our fellow second years.”

The Aoba Johsai second years stared at their Karasuno counterparts before Yahaba said excitedly: “We would love to come with you guys!” Watari nodded along before they all looked at Kyoutani. He glared at all of them before muttering something about overbearing year mates and nodded.

Hanamaki watched with glee, “Yo, we third years should do something too don’t you think!” Matsukawa nodded and noticed Daichi walking in the gym.

“Daichiiiiii we have a brilliant idea!”

“Nope whatever it is, it’s a no from me.”

“But you didn’t even hear what we have to say!”

“Yeah because when you said that two days ago, we ended up with a smashed clock and Hinata somehow stuck on the ceiling beams!”

As they kept arguing Kindaichi sat on the side unsure of what to do. On one hand, he was hoping to avoid any interaction with the other team, on the other, watching his upperclassmen make plans and mess around with their sworn enemies made him pause and rethink. Also, sure it had only been a week, but Kindaichi felt like a part of him was missing without volleyball and he wasn't quite ready for it to be over just yet. 

“Yo Kunimi….d’you think we should stick around for practice, just to see what's going on with these guys?” Kunimi looked up at him with a small smile, and Kindaichi was reminded that his friend also loved volleyball to an extent, otherwise he wouldn't be here in the first place. 

“I guess if we have to. What's the worst that could happen?”

* * *

“Okay and on the other side of the net we’re going to have the first years.”

Kindaichi was going to murder Yahaba. He had somehow magically come up with the idea to make the first years play against the second years. Kindaichi was sure that he did this all on purpose, unfortunately he wasn’t about to say anything in front of the coaches and the other team because he didn’t want to look like a whiny brat. He looked over at Kunimi who was staring off at Kageyama with an unreadable expression. Looking over, Kindaichi noticed Kageayama and Tsukishima saying something snarky to each other while Hinata ran around them laughing and Yamaguchi stood between them trying to mediate. Finally, Kageyama noticed the staring and after a look at Hinata, he began to walk over to them.

Kageyama had a lot of thoughts running through his mind. He was surprised to see those two show up to practice today, but he was also secretly pleased to see they didn’t give up on volleyball with the amount of potential they both had. He knew what he did wrong in middle school, he also knew what they did wrong but decided that it was probably up to him to extend the first olive branch. With an encouraging smile from Yamaguchi and a ‘good luck’ from Hinata, he walked over to his former teammates and friends.

“Um…since we’re going to play on the same team, what kind of tosses do you both prefer?”

Kindaichi and Kunimi stared at him blank faced. That was definitely not what they expected but noticing that everyone was waiting they answered him and took their places at the other side of the net.

The game was…interesting to say the least. Kindaichi watched as Kageyama and Hinata mistimed one of their quicks and fully expected some rant, but to his major surprise Kageyama apologized to Hinata and took them blame, which somehow led to anargument from Hinata about how Kageayama wasn’t the one to blame and they ended up fighting over how each of them is more to blame than the other.

Kunimi kept staring at Kageyama intently throughout the match and when he finally got one of Kageyama’s sets, he turned and looked at their former friend and thanked him for the set which led to Kageyama spluttering out a ‘nice kill’ in response.

Finally, Kindaichi received one of Kageayama’s sets and to his surprise, it was perfect. Landing just exactly where his palm would be, he slammed the ball down through the arms of Karasuno’s number 8 with lots of satisfaction. Kageyama looked at him and said: “Nuff nice kill.” He also had both his hands up. Kindaichi stared for a second before thanking him and giving him a very awkward double highfive. Alright, Kindaichi was willing to admit, maybe just maaaaybe, Kageyama had become a slightly better person. (If Yahaba was dying of laughter in the background no one had to know. His plan was working perfectly.)

After the match which the first years had won, Hinata had come up to them and asked if they wanted to hang out with the other first years. (Hinata became jealous when he heard the second year’s plan and wanted to do something fun too.) Kindaichi was about to say no when to his surprise Kunimi looked up and answered:

“Yeah sure it’s not like we have anything better to do.”

When Hinata walked away to let the others no Kindaichi looked at his friend and Kunimi rolled his eyes.

“Don’t give me that look. You're just as curious as I am to see what this new Kageyama is like. I know that you’re tired of holding grudges that are partially you're fault too.” Before Kindaichi could respond he stood up and walked over to where the other first years, including the small blonde manager were waiting for them. Sighing, he decided that he could give it a shot.

“So where are we going?”

Hinata grinned with a gleam in his eyes, “Karaoke!!”

Tsukishima sighed knowing this was going to end up with him becoming partially deaf.

(He was right.)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Obviously kindaichi and kunimi won't become buddy buddy with kageyama after one match/outing. But laying the foundation is important and especially because it'll help convince Oikawa to try and make amends too. Next chapter will feature all three of the outings and the trouble that they all get up to!


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Three different outings plus a surprise fourth outing! Also, revelations are made about the fire and people are not happy.

“I want ramen.”

“Ramen is lame let’s just get yakiniku!”

“How DARE you say ramen is lame!”

Daichi sighed for what felt like the hundredth time in five minutes. Suga had decided to take charge of where they were going for dinner and Hanamaki refused. Daichi didn’t know if Hanamaki refused all of Suga’s options because he was a picky eater or just wanted to make Daichi’s life difficult, but he was going to murder someone soon.

“There’s a good Korean place that opened not too far from my house. We can go there if no one has any objections.” Kiyoko decided to finally put Daichi out of his suffering once she noticed him pulling his hair in frustration.

Sugawara nodded along happily. Hanamaki also agreed because even if he had only known Kiyoko properly for a week, he knew that saying no to her was literally impossible. They all decided to make their way to the restaurant as the sun slowly began to set.

Asahi and Kiyoko were discussing the food options with Matsukawa listening to them eagerly. Daichi was walking behind Sugawara and Hanamaki while they discussed some movie they wanted to watch. He had no particular reason for doing so, but he saw a gleam in Sugawara’s eyes that made him very wary and figured he should stay close to do damage control. Finally Sugawara looked up at Hanamaki and said:

“You know Makki, our second years are going out together right now.”

“Yeah I know, that’s where we got the idea from.”

“Do you think our adorable little first years are going out together too, seeing as yours finally showed up to practice?”

Hanamaki paused for a second, the third years had left before the others as privilege of being the oldest. He noticed that they all worked well together but didn’t think Kindaichi would be ready to go out with Kageyama just yet.

“I don’t think so. There’s still some bad blood between some people.”

"Hmm, maybe you just don't know your kouhai as well as you think." Sugawara smirked slightly.

Hanamaki's eye twitched, sure he wasn't the captain or vice, but he always made an effort to hang out with the new kids on the team. "I'm fairly confident that I know my kouhai, pretty sure I know them even more than you know yours." Daichi facepalmed in the back. 

Sugawara got a dangerous gleam in his eyes. "Do you know them well enough to know exactly what they're thinking?"

"Pfft no. And don't you even say you can do that either. You have some really unpredictable people on your team like shorty."

“Wanna bet?” Hanamaki eyed Sugawara suspiciously, he looked innocent but from the corner of his eye he could see Daichi frantically shaking his head no.

“Depends on what it is.”

“Alright well, if I can call my kouhai, and guess word for word what he says when he answers the phone, then I get your phone for the entire evening. If I get even one word wrong, then you get my phone and Daichi’s for the evening!”

“OI! Suga! Don’t drag me into this!”

Hanamaki was very intrigued. He was used to taking Oikawa’s phone and messing with it, but someone as proper as Daichi would be even more fun to mess with. He figured that as confident Sugawara is, Hinata was just someone you couldn't keep up with and Sugawara was biting off more than he could chew. 

He stuck out his hand, “Alright Suga, you’re on.”

Sugawara grinned.

Five minutes later Hanamaki handed over his phone grudgingly with Matsukawa in the background laughing. Daichi shook his head, honestly, it’s not like Sugawara had any special mind reading powers, Hinata was just _that_ predictable to most people's surprise. Daichi looked up noticing Sugawara taking a selfie and smiled.

* * *

Oikawa had laid down on Iwaizumi’s bed the second he entered his bedroom claiming to be ‘too tired for schoolwork’. Iwaizumi rolled his eyes, but he knew that even if Oikawa didn’t study for Monday’s quiz, he’d probably still be top five in the class as always. He didn’t want to push his friend seeing how irritated he’d been all week that their kouhai and year mates were having fun practicing with Karasuno. Iwaizumi was sick of not playing volleyball and had come to terms with his insecurities (mostly), and now all that was left was a certain volleyball idiot that was currently messing up his bed.

Personally, Iwaizumi was starting to think that maybe it would do Oikawa some good to try and play with everyone else, he’d heard from Yahaba about how surprisingly accommodating Kageyama was to his spikers and Iwaizumi decided that if Kageyama could grow up, then surely his 18 year old senpai could do the same. Just as he was about to bring up the subject Oikawa screeched and shot up from the bed.

“THOSE TRAITORS!”

“What are you on about trashykawa?”

“Iwa-chaaaaaaaaaan look!!!” A phone was shoved into Iwaizumi’s face.

“It’s a picture of Karasuno’s third year setter. Why is that interesting? Also I wasn’t aware you follow him on Instagram?”

“Because I don’t Iwa-chan. Look closer.”

Iwaizumi squinted and finally noticed that the picture, a selfie of Sugawara grinning while walking down the street with the captain in the background throwing a peace sign, was posted from Hanamaki’s account.

“Ohhh I see. I mean they have been spending a lot of time together recently, so I suppose it makes sense that they're hanging out with each other.”

“Well that doesn’t mean I have to like it.”

“Do you just hate everything about Karasuno on principle because of association with Kageyama or do you have an actual reason instead of just being a trashy guy?” Iwaizumi asked in the most monotone voice he could come up with.

“Oh please like you’re any better. If you were a better person than me then you’d go to practice too!”

“I never said I was a better person I just said you’re a trashy one. There’s a difference.”

“THERE IS NO DIFFERENCE!” Oikawa sighed sitting back down.

“Anyways I've made up my mind.”

“You’re going to suck it up and come to practice?”

“Not yet Iwa-chan we have something more important to do.” Oikawa grinned and dragged his friend off to where his brilliant plan was going to take place.

* * *

“THIS IS SO COOL! TANAKA LOOK AT ALL THESE EXHIBITS!” Nishinoya was running in circles around the group of second years when they finally got to the large convention center hosting the movie exhibit. The place was packed with people and split up into genres of movies with memorabilia, authentic posters, and even costumes from the sets spread out everywhere. It looked just like a huge comic con, but less people wearing costumes.

Yahaba immediately dragged Kinoshita over to the fantasy section, both of them discovering that they had the same love for a spinoff movie series based on a popular video game they both played. Everyone else decided to wander aimlessly through the exhibits learning more about each other through the places each person stopped at.

Ennoshita got mercilessly teased when he tried to suggest going to the non-fiction section because of a medical documentary series he wanted to see. Eventually after he turned beet red, he decided to march over there by himself to the amusement of the others still laughing in the background. Narita noticed that the kids section had some toys for sale that his siblings were looking for, so he told everyone to go on ahead without him.

With four people left in the main group, they decided to head towards the center where there was a crowd forming. When they got there, they noticed that in honor of a big new action movie coming out this summer, a fighting ring had been placed in the middle where the last man standing would win a big prize.

“Yo Tanaka! We should totally sign up for that!”

“Bruh have you seen the size of these people! Daichi will have our heads if we get beat up!”

“Actually you guys, it doesn’t look like actual fighting. It looks like arm wrestling.” Watari piped up from his place next to Nishinoya.

“Still man, I don’t admit defeat easily, but those guys could very easily break my arms off.”

They sighed and decided to move on and get food. Watari secretly wished that Iwaizumi-senpai was here because he would totally have a chance at winning the prize. As they began to walk away, they heard an announcement:

“Alright! Our reigning champion so far, The Bone Crusher, has a new challenger! Please welcome to the stage…Mad Dooooooog!”

The three of them stopped and looked at each other suddenly noticing they had a member missing.

“You guys don’t think….” Watari spoke as the three of them pushed their way to the front.

“Oh my God.”

“OH YEAH GO MAD DOG!”

“WHAT DO YOU MEAN GO MAD DOG! HAVE YOU SEEN THE SIZE OF THAT GUY! HE’S GONNA GET DESTROYED! THAT GUY LOOKS LIKE HE PERMANEMTLY LIVES OFF OF STEROIDS AND PROTEIN POWER!”

Tanaka kept staring. The Bone Crusher looked like he spent all of his free time at the gym. He was easily taller than six feet with tan skin and a buzzcut. On his bulging arms he had various tattoos of things like skulls and crossbones. The scowl on his face scared Tanaka even more than that time Saeko found out he broke her motorcycle when he took it out without asking. Kyoutani wasn’t a small guy, but next to him, he looked like Hinata standing next to Aone from Date Tech. 

Tanaka turned to Watari. “Yo are you not gonna try stopping this! Your teammate is going to get destroyed!”

Watari gave him a very tired look. “Do you think I could even if I wanted to? Besides I'm sure they won’t let any permanent injury occur.”

Tanaka didn’t look too sure, but eventually Nishinoya nudged him and told him it was starting. He decided if this was the last time he was going to see his bro, he had to honor him by watching his fight all the way to the end.

* * *

“Okay now this is even more unexpected than the last one! Iwa-chan look!”

For the second time that night, a phone was shoved into Iwaizumi’s face as they walked to…somewhere. (Oikawa still hadn’t told him where and he was getting close to punching him.)

“What the….” Iwaizumi stared at Oikawa’s Instagram feed again. this time it was Watari who had posted a picture of himself standing next to Kyoutani with the libero from Karasuno jumping excitedly next to him. On Kyoutani’s other side you had the second-year wing spiker from Karasuno who looked like he was crying as he had an arm around Kyoutani’s shoulders. Kyoutani was wearing some sort of plastic crown with a red sash. The caption said: ‘Mad Dog reigns undefeated as the king of arm-wrestling (only exception being @iwaizumi_hajime) :)’

Iwaizumi stared for a couple more seconds before looking at Oikawa. “Honestly, I have no idea what's going on. Looks like I’m going to have to arm wrestle that punk a couple more times though, so he doesn’t get a big head. More importantly, can you please tell me where we’re going?”

Oikawa rolled his eyes. “Patience my grumpy friend. All will be revealed soon.” He quickly started running to dodge the kick Iwaizumi aimed at him.

* * *

“I hate you all.”

“Come on Tsukiiiii! Everyone else is doing it too!”

“I never said I was.”

“Shut up Kunimi! If I have to then you have to as well!”

“It’s not my fault you don’t know how to say no and you're easily goaded into doing dumb things!”

“WHAT!”

Yachi and Yamaguchi sat off to the side watching Hinata try and convince the others to do karaoke as well. So far, all five songs had been sung by the three of them. Kageyama was going next, having been persuaded by Hinata mentioning that this is another one of their competitions. Kindaichi, not wanting to lose to Kageyama (Yamaguchi still wasn’t sure why he came but he seemed to not fully hate it) boldly said he was going to go afterwards. The only two left were Kunimi and Tsukishima.

Hinata eventually decided that he was going to make those two sing later and sat back down to watch Kageyama. Unfortunately, Kageyama had a pretty decent singing voice and could actually hit a range of notes unlike Hinata’s screeching. Kindaichi began to look even more determined as he noticed Kageyama getting all the words right.

Tsukishima decided that enough was enough once Kageyama finished his song. While Kindaichi was distracted by Hinata, Yamaguchi and Yachi who were trying to pick a song for him, he turned to the only other person that had the same level of disgust on their face that he did.

“We don’t know each other very well at all. But you're the only other sane person here which is why I'm going to ask: Do you want to escape?”

Kunimi, for the first time since Tsukishima had met him, looked somewhat excited. “Oh I thought you would never ask. Let’s go before Kindaichi notices I'm gone.” Kunimi knew that Kindaichi was going to get mad at him but that was a problem for future Kunimi to worry about.

They quickly snuck outside and noticed it was dark now, the cold October air making it even chillier. As they wrapped their scarves tighter, they decided to walk as far away from the karaoke place as possible before the others noticed. They could think of a destination later.

After some time of walking in silence, they stopped by a convenience store to get something to eat. (Hinata insisted on karaoke before dinner making Tsukishima want to kill him even more.)

As they walked into the small store, there was a song playing in the background. Without thinking, Tsukishima said:

“It’s good but the platinum cover was better.”

“Platinum cover was better.”

Tsukishima paused and looked down at Kunimi who was staring back at him.

“You know this song?”

“ _You_ know this song?”

“Yamaguchi never knows anything I listen to!”

“It’s the same with Kindaichi! I mean how hard is it to listen to something other than pop!”

“That’s what I always say!”

They both stared at each other with excitement (or as much excitement as Kunimi could manage) and hurriedly bought snacks while discussing their favorite music and becoming pleasantly surprised that the other person also knew the obscure bands they listened to.

Eventually they ended up in the nearby park with Tsukishima’s phone between them as the blasted out their music sitting silently while munching their snacks. Tsukishima had closed his eyes and was appreciating the music when he suddenly heard a click.

Opening one eye he looked at Kunimi who was typing on his phone. “Did you just take my photo?”

Kunimi smirked muttering something about showing that he wasn’t the only weirdo. Tsukishima shrugged and closed his eyes again, after all, Yamaguchi did things like this all the time, so he was used to it.

* * *

They were currently waiting in the police station’s office after Oikawa asked for the records of the Aoba Jousai fire. Iwaizumi was surprised that Oikawa actually did have a decent idea but figured that it was better to not let him know otherwise his ego would be too big to fit through the door. As he sat in the chair, he felt a sense of Deja Vu as Oikawa once again shoved a phone in his face.

“Now what.”

“Just look at our traitorous kouhai!” Iwaizumi rolled his eyes and grabbed the phone.

This picture came from the last person he expected. Kunimi had posted a picture of the park, where to the side of the photo, Karasuno’s first year blonde middle blocker had his eyes closed against a tree. The phone on the ground was surrounded by a bunch of snacks and was circled bright red. The caption said: ‘Glad to finally meet someone with good music taste.’

There were a lot of comments under the post and as Iwaizumi scrolled through them, he could see Kindaichi’s account commenting something about betrayal and another account called @shoyooooooo (whom he guessed was the tiny Karasuno middle blocker) tagging someone called @kei.tsukishima and writing about how he is a fake friend. Before Iwaizumi could even begin to digest what this all meant Oikawa nudged him and he looked up noticing the policeman finally arrived with the file.

Iwaizumi thanked the officer and grabbed the file with Oikawa reading over his shoulder. As he skimmed through the report, Oikawa let out a gasp and pointed towards the bottom of the page, under the additional notes column.

_‘When asked by police two days later, the principal mentioned that there were already plans to tear down the gym to be replaced by a swimming pool. He denies any further involvement to the situation.’_

Oikawa looked at Iwaizumi with the same livid look in his eyes, no words needed to be said. They thanked the policeman and walked home in silence knowing that this was more serious than either of them ever thought it would be.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you guys enjoyed!!


	7. Chapter 7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> More developments plus a fun surprise at the end! (depending on who you ask)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So this is a much shorter chapter but I wanted to post something before I fell asleep and felt like the ending was a fun place to stop! Hope you all enjoy!

“What do you mean we can't see him!”

“Oikawa-kun like I told you, he is busy right now.”

“This is an emergency!”

“Oikawa-kun if you don’t lower your voice, I'm afraid you're going to get detention.” The receptionist for the Aoba Johsai principal sighed. She knew this day wouldn’t be a good one when Oikawa Toru and Iwaizumi Hajime barged into the reception area the second, they walked in school, demanding to see the principal. Unfortunately he had ordered a strict no disturbance rule for the day so she had to hope they would just leave and come back another day.

“If you boys insist on seeing him, I can take a message and you can schedule an appointment, you know the rules.”

Oikawa groaned in frustration and stormed out of the office, Iwaizumi following behind after some apologies.

Iwaizumi sprinted after Oikawa and shoved him into a spare classroom.

“Oi what the hell was that?”

“Nothing. Now let me go.” Oikawa’s voice was like ice, cold and unforgiving as he tried to break free of Iwaizumi’s grip on his arms.

“Not until you calm down before you get something stupid like detention because you couldn’t keep your mouth shut.”

“I am calm now let me GO!” Oikawa yanked his arms free causing Iwaizumi to stumble backwards and launch himself at his idiotic best friend.

After a couple of minutes they felt each other being separated and Iwaizumi looked up watching Hanamaki hold Oikawa's arms behind him. Twisting he looked up at Matsukawa’s face who had an uncharacteristically serious expression.

“Alright you two. We’re going to let you go now but only if you don’t attack each other. And then someone is going to explain what is going on.”

Hanamaki nodded at Matsukawa and they both let go. Oikawa glared and after being stared down by his three closest friends, he told them what had happened when they visited the police station.

Matsukawa struggled to get his words out until finally he managed to say: “So they were going to tear it down _anyways_??”

Iwaizumi nodded. “If the police report is true and we have no reason to believe it isn’t, then yeah that’s what it looks like. We tried to visit the guy this morning, but he wasn’t around, and Oikawa lost his cool.”

Oikawa sighed. “Honestly I'm not sure what to do right now.”

“Here’s what you do. _Come to practice with us today._ Both of you.” Hanamaki looked between Oikawa and Iwaizumi, while Matsukawa nodded his assent from the back.

Oikawa got a pained look on his face but when he voiced no verbal complaint Matsukawa continued off of Hanamaki’s plea.

“Look you guys clearly need to let off some steam. You can't see the principal today then fine, all four of us will go tomorrow together. But Karasuno ain’t the worst thing in the world. They're all really nice people including your old kouhai.”

Iwaizumi sighed in defeat and looked at his friends sheepishly. “I guess we have been really stubborn haven’t we. To be honest I never had an issue with Karasuno or Kageyama. It was my own issues stopping me, but I feel so lost without volleyball.”

They all stared at Oikawa who rolled his eyes. “Yeah yeah alright fine. But I will still do my best to crush Tobio-chan in any practice match we play.”

* * *

“Well isn’t this….quaint.” Oikawa stared at the Karasuno gym baffled. Most schools they played against were all private schools with large facilities, the last time he had been in a public school was years ago.

“Shut up trashykawa, at least we have a place to play.”

“Yeah and because your idiot self forgot where he left his gym bag, we’re late. I’ll bet they're practicing already.” Hanamaki walked past them rolling his eyes. The students had come by themselves today because of a mandatory faculty meeting that the coaches were required to attend. Luckily the school had a bus driver willing to drop them off.

As the third years walked inside, they noticed their underclassmen standing by the door not going in.

“Oi stop blocking the doorway and get to practice.” Iwaizumi pushed past until he too stood in place when he saw what was going on in shock.

The players of Karasuno were standing in a circle cheering with their captain in the middle, and he was….dancing??? There was some song playing in the background that Iwaizumi faintly recognized. Poor Daichi looked very much out of his element with stiff movements and awkward shuffling while the vice-captain was doubled over with laughter and shakily holding up a phone. Finally Sugawara noticed the crowd.

“Well, well, well. Look who finally decided to show up.” He walked over to them wearing a dangerous smirk on his face.

“Captain-kun! You must teach me your moves. Is this how you’re going to win at nationals, by making the other team die of second-hand embarrassment from watching you?” Daichi turned red and muttered angrily about ‘stupid rooster headed captain’ and ‘last time I listen to that owl headed freak too.’

Sugawara beamed at Oikawa. “Oh hush now Toru-kun. Unlike you at least we’ve been practicing these days instead of slacking off. You look much softer than the last time I saw you, have you put on weight!”

The other Aoba Johsai players doubled over in laughter while Oikawa angrily yelled about how this shirt always makes him look fat and that they should just get started anyways.

“Well seeing as neither of our coaches are here, let’s just play a practice match, if you guys are up for it.” Daichi grinned as both teams got serious.

* * *

It was a vicious practice where set after set was played. Karasuno won the first set and with renewed vigor Aoba Johsai took the second and third sets. Then after a long deuce that reached to the 40’s, Karasuno won the fourth set.

When Takeda-sensei and Coach Ukai walked in they saw both teams completely exhausted on the floor, no one able to move. Except for one exception.

“LET’S PLAY ANOTHER SET GUYS!”

“I wish you had this much energy when it came to actual studying.”

“Shut up Tsukishima we can't all be boring like you!”

“OOOOh Tsukiiii you gonna let him talk to you like that?”

“Matsuakwa-san. You're also in class one. I don’t think you have any room to talk.”

“TSUKKI!”

“Alright you jokers. Ginger stop running around it’s making me dizzy. If you still have energy you can start putting the balls away. Oikawa and Iwaizumi, it’s good to see you both.”

Oikawa sat up and nodded at Coach Ukai in acknowledgement.

“Now gather ‘round everyone! The sooner you can get up the sooner you get to go home, we have an announcement for you all.”

Once the teams gathered around, Coach Ukai nodded towards his colleague. Takeda-sensei grinned brightly and said:

“Over the weekend, the gym will be going some expansions to accommodate for our increase in size, and hopefully all the new students we get next year! So there will be no practice this weekend in the gym.”

The Karasuno players started to chatter excitedly amongst themselves while Oikawa looked slightly disheartened. He was still feeling the adrenaline of playing that match and he was looking forward to coming back the next day to play more. (Not that he would ever tell the others that-they'd never let him hear the end of it!)

The Aoba Johsai players promised to pass on the message to their coaches as they all got ready to go home.

“Alright everyone, in honor of the Grand King’s arrival, you all get meat buns for your hard work! And Oikawa’s paying!” Sugawara yelled out to a resounding cheer of joy that drowned out Oikawa’s squawks of protest.

* * *

Oikawa waited at the staircase with Iwaizumi. He had arrived extra early much to the surprise of his mother who was used to letting Iwaizumi in the house to wake up his best friend for school.

“There you guys are.” Matsukawa walked up to them yawning with Hanamaki trailing behind him.

“Took you guys long enough.”

“Not my fault that Issei fell asleep on the bus and refused to get up.”

“Shut up!”

“Alright now let’s focus people.” At Oikawa’s command the others calmed down and grew serious once more.

They walked down the stairs and got ready to face the principal. To their luck, his secretary was taking a bathroom break, so they bypassed that hurdle and knocked at his door.

“Enter, Sakura! I told you, you don’t have to knock when you’re bringing me my morning coffee!”

Oikawa rolled his eyes and walked inside. Their principal was an old man, easily over 60 with pure white hair and a permanent scowl on his face to match the dangerously steely look in his blue eyes. His eyebrows raised slightly, the only sign that he was surprised by the sudden entrance of the boys.

“Toru-kun, everyone. Isn’t this a surprise. You boys should know better than to barge in here without an appointment.”

“With all due respect Daisuke-san, this is a matter of urgency that couldn’t wait.” Oikawa took charge, having gotten used to using his words and charm to sway teachers into giving him what he wants over the years.

“Oh? Well I'm sure you boys must have a good reason. Hajime-kun close the door and take a seat all of you. I’m sure you understand that our time is short because morning classes start soon.” Daisuke smiled faintly as he watched the boys sit.

“Daisuke-san, we would like to discuss the fire that destroyed the volleyball gyms and clubroom.”

“Unfortunately boys, it is inconclusive so far what the cause of the fire is. I deeply wish I could give you some better news.”

"We went to the police station the other day Diasuke-san, and we wanted to ask you something about what was written in the investigative files."

"Now, now Oikawa-kun. You should know better than to believe what is written in those files, people will make up anything to quickly close a case to focus manpower on something else."

Iwaizumi fought back an eye-roll and added onto Oikawa: "Yes of course, but we just saw an interesting statement that made us curious. It was about-"

"Now boys," the principal's tone grew sharper as a dangerous smirk began to form, "I hope you're aware that the police file you are referring to was placed under the protective information category, which means members of the public cannot legally access it. Are you telling me that a police officer helped you access files illegally?"

Oikawa and Iwaizumi looked at each other with worry, the reason they saw the file was because Iwaizumi's uncle worked at the station and having the same last name meant that the young rookie on duty probably felt it was okay to let them peek at the file quickly.

Their principal continued: "I'm afraid you boys will have to tell me who let you access that file, we cannot have a member of our precious police force breaking privacy laws."

Oikawa was seething, in a few sentences they had gone from questioning the principal, to being accused of breaking a law! He decided that they needed to backtrack and regroup.

“Of course Daisuke-san. If we remember the name we will inform you, but seeing as morning class will start in five minutes we should really get going. We just wanted to ask if you could possibly keep us updated with the investigation. It would be a shame if we never found the culprit of such a heinous crime don’t you agree?”

He nodded in dismissal and looked back at his pages, a clear sign that the boys had to exit. As they were walking out the door, they heard the principal say:

“Do be careful boys. I wouldn’t want you to get involved in something too big for you to handle.”

* * *

“Well….this is new.” Daichi said as he walked into the gym after school. He heard the sounds of someone smashing serves and expected Kageyama and Hinata to have ditched class again to start practice early, instead he found a very angry fellow captain.

“Yo Oikawa, what are you doing?”

“Is everyone on your team so abysmal they can't even recognize the sound of a proper serve Captain-kun?”

Daichi didn’t bother dignifying that with a response and simply picked up one of the stray balls to put back in the basket.

“So did you ditch to get here early or are you the only one here today?”

“I had a free period at the end of the day, and I didn’t feel like waiting. Is that a crime?” Daichi held up his hands in surrender and walked over to the clubroom to change, pulling out his phone to text one of the Aoba Johsai third years that their missing captain was here.

As he walked to change, he saw Kageyama leaving the clubroom first. Deciding it was better to do damage control now, he grabbed Kageyama’s arm to stop him from continuing.

“Listen. Oikawa is in a bad mood so I don’t think you should go in there alone; I’ll change quickly just give me five minutes.”

“Oh don’t worry captain, I'm already used to Oikawa-senpai’s mood swings. If you ignore him, he usually doesn’t acknowledge you.” Kageyama nodded politely and walked towards the gym. 

Daichi sighed and let go. Honestly, he wouldn’t take more than five minutes to change, what's the worst that could happen.

* * *

“CAPTAAAAIN ITS AN EMERGENCY!” Daichi groaned when he heard Tanaka and Noya screeching. He quickly put on his shirt and ran downstairs with Ennoshita.

“What did you guys do?”

“It wasn’t us this time I swear!”

“Funny, why do I find that hard to believe?”

“You wound me Chikara. You wound me deeply.”

“All of you shut it. Now what's the problem?” Daichi was dragged by Tanaka and Noya into the gym where several other members of the club were gathered around the old supply closet. Sugawara saw him and ran to intercept.

“Daichi before we tell you anything you have to promise not to get mad.”

“What.”

“Just promise you won’t get mad.”

“Suga……just tell me what's going on. And where’s Oikawa he was just here!”

“Yeah about that…..” Sugawara pointed at the old supply closet, the old supply closet no one was allowed into for very specific reasons, and said:

“Oikawa and Kageyama are stuck in the closet and we can't get them out.”


	8. Chapter 8

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Many things happen and a joyful reunion will occur soon!

Oikawa was positively livid. First his day started by dealing with that horrible principal of his, then when he tried to find Coach Irihata in break he was told that he wasn’t in school today so he had no adult to rant to, then when he tried to do his usual serving practice to blow off some steam he remembered they had no freaking gym, and now he's stuck in a closet with his uselessly adorable kouhai who seems to be handling it so much better than he is!

The closet was just large enough for both setters to stand opposite each other without touching. It was filled with old posters and broken nets and apparently had a very faulty lock that shouldn’t be messed with.

After a couple of minutes of listening to everyone freak out outside, they heard Daichi’s voice through the door. “Listen you guys, Suga went to get help, for now seeing as there’s nothing we can do until sensei comes, you’re going to have to stay put. Sorry.”

Oikawa groaned and started banging his head against the shelves behind him.

“Oikawa-senpai.”

“What do you want Tobio-chan.”

“Suga-senpai told me if you keep banging your head against hard things then all the smartness leaves your head. So you should probably stop.”

Oikawa stared at him incredulously. Was he being serious or trying some strange attempt at humor? Oikawa rolled his eyes as he realized it was probably the former, his kouhai was never good with sarcasm.

After a few more minutes of awkward silence, Oikawa began fighting the urge to speak. Iwa-chan always told him how he would self-combust if he had to be silent for more than five minutes, but Oikawa didn’t think he was that bad. (Looks like he was.)

Finally he looked up at Kageyama who was holding the ball that rolled in here and staring at it intently.

“Honestly Tobio-chan this is all your schools’ fault. I mean who leaves a broken closet like this without fixing it!”

“Captain said we don’t have the money to spare to fix the lock because of saving up for gym expansions and other things.” Oikawa rolled his eyes, who knew public schools had such little money.

“Honestly coming here was a mistake.” Oikawa angrily muttered while kicking the floor.

“Oikawa-senpai I did tell you that you shouldn’t go in the closet.”

“Shut up Tobio-chan no one asked you for your opinion. Besides if you knew you shouldn’t be in here then why did you follow me?”

“I didn’t think you heard me, so I was trying to stop you, but it didn’t work.”

Oikawa rolled his eyes. The fact that he didn’t even consider that Oikawa might have been ignoring him was very annoying. It basically confirmed that his kouhai was a simple-minded volleyball idiot. He smiled faintly remembering how easy it was to get Kageyama to believe anything back in middle school. As he began reminiscing his middle school days, he noticed Kageyama shifting his staring from the ball, to Oikawa himself.

“Don’t you know it’s rude to stare?”

“Oikawa-senpai. Can I ask you a question?”

“You just did stupid.”

“Oh can I ask another one then-I mean one other than this one like not this-”

“Oh my God don’t hurt yourself thinking too hard Tobio-chan. What do you want?”

“I was just wondering, what happened to your gym?”

“There was a fire you idiot that’s what happened.”

“I know that, but I mean how did it start, because everyone Hinata and I asked doesn’t seem to know?”

Oikawa paused. The day’s frustrations as well as the frustrations of the whole situation he was in began to crush him. Finally he couldn’t take it anymore and slammed his hand against the wall angrily.

“I DON’T KNOW OKAY! I DON’T KNOW AND I’M TRYING TO FIGURE IT OUT BUT OUR STUPID PRINCIPAL WON’T LISTEN TO ANYTHING AND-” Oikawa kept ranting and ranting about his frustrations. Kageyama to his credit didn’t say anything or look at him strangely. Eventually he got a pained look on his face and as Oikawa was ranting about how the convenience store near his house ran out of his favorite brand of shampoo, he felt something on his head.

“Tobio-chan are you patting my head? Do I _look_ like a dog to you!”

Kageyama continued patting his head. “My sister does this when I get upset. She says it helps calm people down.”

Oikawa stared at him skeptically. “Is your sister five or something? And how come I never knew you had a sister?”

“She’s 23 actually. She lives in Tokyo for university so she’s never around at home.”

“Ugh older sister. My older sister is 27. I feel sorry for you Tobio-chan. Older siblings are the worst. Just you wait, you’re going to be used for free babysitting soon enough.”

Kageyama said something about how his sister used to play dress up with him and Oikawa found himself laughing at the story of baby Kageyama in a tutu. After a while they were both exchanging childhood anecdotes and Oikawa only insulted Kageyama once every third sentence as opposed to his every other sentence tradition. Oikawa balked when he realized Kageyama’s calming method had successfully worked and he was no longer on the verge of a panic attack. Honestly why was his kouhai so annoying?

Finally they heard a knock and Daichi saying that the locksmith will be here in 10 minutes. Oikawa was about to cry with relief, he could finally leave this stupid closet. He looked over at Kageyama who looked extremely excited to get back to playing.

“Tobio-chan. When you're not on the court you’re an alright person, I guess. But this doesn’t make us friends and if you ever tell anyone I was nice to you then I will personally make sure to find out where your sister studies and get her to send me your worst baby photos to expose you.”

Kageyama looked at Oikawa trying to process his insult before slowly saying: “Sure Oikawa-senpai. Although I'm not sure how that’s going to help with anything?”

Oikawa rolled his eyes. He would always have some bitterness towards his kouhai and his stupid innate talent, but losing his precious gym made him realize that there were more important enemies to focus on and he couldn’t properly do that if he was focusing on crushing his stupidly adorable kouhai each practice. (He was already thinking of phase two of their plan to destroy their stupid principal.)

Finally the door opened, and Oikawa began moaning and complaining loudly to everyone in vicinity about how this was the worst torture imaginable. Everyone rolled their eyes and went back to practice after making sure the boys were okay. Iwaizumi had made sure to prewarn everyone that it was probably best to not tell Oikawa that they could hear their entire conversation.

* * *

The next day, the four third years went to see Coach Irihata and tell him their latest developments as well as complain about the principal. To their surprise he didn’t react as expected.

The Coach was sat behind his desk with the four boys standing in front of him, for the first time since he’d known them, all four looked completely serious with no side glances and nudging. It hurt him that they were so passionate about finding the reason for their loss and he had to break their hearts, but it was for their own good.

“Boys, I understand you’re frustrated and upset, but this is not the time for you all to be playing detective. Focus on your volleyball and your studies. You’re all third years and I look forward to your graduations.”

“But coach!” Oikawa tried pleading for them to be told anything about the situation to no avail.

“Oikawa-kun I’m sorry but this is my final decision. Leave this business to us adults and don’t ask again. Now go enjoy the rest of your break.”

The four left their coach’s office feeling more frustrated than ever. As they were exiting the teacher’s area, they heard a voice calling out to them.

“Wait you guys! Slow down!”

“Coach Mizoguchi!” Hanamaki greeted their young coach.

“Come with me you guys, but don’t be too loud.” The four looked at each other with excitement, finally it looked like something was happening.

Coach Mizoguchi led them into one of the empty classrooms and closed the door behind him. He beckoned them closer and began to whisper hurriedly.

“Look you can't tell anyone I'm telling you this, especially Coach Irihata because he doesn’t want you boys to get involved, but I disagree. Coach Irihata has been placed under faculty observation as of this morning.”

No one said anything, staring at their coach with disbelief.

Coach Mizugochi continued: “Do you boys understand how serious this claim is? It means Irihata has to be extremely careful, otherwise this can go into his permanent teaching record and he won’t be able to get another job. The four of you are on the verge of graduation but you know that if anything goes on your permanent records now, right before you start applying for college, the consequences could affect your entire futures.”

“Coach what are you saying?” Iwaizumi asked almost fearfully.

“I’m saying that you boys cannot go bursting into Daisuke-san’s office and demand explanations. You need to not only be smart, but careful because anything you do will directly affect Irihata and by extension, myself.”

After a few minutes of silence, Oikawa looked up at his friends and noticed the same expression mirrored on their faces. He faced Coach Mizugochi and thanked him for the information.

“Coach we aren’t going to give up looking for the culprit. But we do promise to be smarter about what we do.”

“That’s why I'm telling you guys this. And don’t blame yourselves for anything that might happen okay?” Coach Mizugochi looked at each of the boys in turn, holding their gaze.

“Coach Irihata and I are both very honored to have watched you grow up these three years. Even if we never find out what happened, we will still be very proud.”

* * *

“I can't believe he got punished because of us.” Iwaizumi said while kicking the floor of the Karasuno gym. The third years had gathered off to the side where Oikawa, after some convincing from Hanamaki and Matsukawa, had explained the situation to their Karasuno counterparts.

Asahi had looked terrified, Kiyoko and Daichi looked concerned for the other team, while Sugawara looked even more pensive than usual. “Even if it was your fault, based on everything I have heard, it seems like something along these lines was bound to happen sooner or later. I think we should focus our efforts on figuring out how this happened, which will lead us to figuring out who the culprit is.” Kiyoko didn’t speak often, so when she did everyone make sure to listen.

“Wait now, you said ‘we’. You guys aren’t getting dragged in this mess too.” Iwaizumi crossed his arms and stared down the Karasuno players.

“Aww Hajime-kun its cute that you think you can tell us what to do! If you think you can stop us then please go ahead and try, I dare you!” Sugawara looked at his fellow vice-captain with a raised eyebrow and his trademark smirk, daring Iwaizumi to say more.

“You guys do realize this could get dangerous right!” Iwaizumi looked at the others. Daichi had his hands on his hips and was smiling, Kiyoko wasn’t smiling but she was holding her clipboard looking very determined, Asahi was the only one acting somewhat sane because he looked like he was about to pass out.

“It’s like Suga said. You guys can try to stop us, but we’ll just conduct our own investigation. We’re not only opponents, we’re friends which means we also want to know why one of the top schools in the prefecture may be deliberately trying to sabotage their players.” Daichi’s voice left no room for complaint.

“So now what do we do?”

“Everyone gather around! Us third years will be leaving practice early today because it’s that time of year when we start to get super busy. You guys can stay until 8pm. Ennoshita is in charge of locking up which means freak duo,” Daichi paused and stared down Hinata and Kagyeama, “I don’t want to hear you guys stayed behind extra or I will tell Takeda-sensei your most recent English grades.”

Ignoring his kouhai’s protests, Daichi looked at the others and nodded and all the third years bade their goodbyes and left.

* * *

“Alright you guys here we are.” Oikawa motioned towards Aoba Johsai. 

“You know I would have thought you guys would be the fancy types with 24-hour security.” Daichi said as they took turns pulling themselves up over the gate.

“We’re a private school but we’re not stupidly extra like Shiratorizawa so security isn’t found outside usually they're just indoors.” Hanamaki rolled his eyes remembering the one time they went to visit Shiratorizawa and Oikawa nearly got himself kicked out because of being in the wrong place.

“Woah….” The four Karasuno fourth years stared in shock at the leftovers of the gym. The Aoba Johsai students looked upon it grimly, all too used to staring at this view from their classrooms.

“The fire must’ve been huge! How did it not hit any other part of the school?” Sugawara began to move closer to the building remains. Oikawa trailed behind him.

“Honestly we don’t know. This is our first time investigating it this close up, usually no one is allowed near this area at all.”

The group of eight kept inching closer to the building (or in Asahi’s case get forcefully dragged by Hanamaki and Daichi) and slowly began to split up to cover more ground. After a few minutes, the boys heard Kiyoko gasp.

“Did you find something?”

“Is everything okay Kiyoko?”

They rushed over to her and noticed her kneeling on the floor, looking like she was trying to dig a hole.

“Uhh Kiyoko-san, what're you doing?” Iwaizumi couldn’t see anything out of the ordinary.

Finally she stood up and brushed off her skirt. She led them over to a different patch of ground that was further away from the building.

“What’s the difference between this patch of ground and the one I was just at?” Kiyoko asked, looking at each of the boys in turn.

After a few minutes of silence, Matsukawa yelled out: “OH I GOT IT! IT’S BEEN DUG UP!”

Hanamaki slapped his hand against his friends mouth but it was too late. They heard the sounds of security coming closer and took one look at each other.

“Run you guys!!!”

Due to the lack of planning, everyone went back over the school gate and began running in opposite directions, finally when the Aoba Johsai boys stopped for breath, Oikawa noticed a text message from Daichi telling them that it was getting late and Kiyoko had to go home, so they would discuss further in practice tomorrow.

The four boys looked at each other apprehensively, practice couldn’t come soon enough.

* * *

“Alright everyone! I've spoken to Coach and Takeda-sensei and because of the importance of the gym expansions, this is the last practice for the week meaning we will not have any gym practice until Monday.” Everyone groaned and began to warm up.

The third years had gathered around again in a corner where Kiyoko began to explain what she saw:

“Matsukawa-san was right yesterday. The ground is usually very hard this time of year, but that ground felt soft. When I knelt down to check, the earth felt like it had been dug up and then put back together very hastily. I think something is suspicious about that.”

The others nodded in agreement and agreed that they would wait a couple of days before going back to investigate again due to security being on high alert after almost catching them.

While warming up, Hanamaki looked around the gym for his favorite Karasuno middle blocker.

“Yo Daichi, why’s Tsukki looking freaked out?”

Daichi and the others turned to look over to where the first years were. Tsukishima was holding his phone and staring at it in horror. Hinata, to everyone’s surprise was also looking at his phone and jumping up and down with excitement.

“Honestly those guys. How many times do I have to tell you guys that there are NO PHONES ALLOWED IN PRACTICE!” Daichi yelled out as he got up to walk to them. He was so focused on scolding Tsukishima and Hinata that he didn’t notice the gym door opening behind him.

“Well, well, well boys. Looks like our information was right. We’ve found ourselves a wild crow nest.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know that this chapter has a lot of events but honestly I personally thought this was representative of how each day can have so many different things happen, anyways I hope you guys enjoy! Next chapter is one I've been looking forward to since I started this story!


	9. Chapter 9

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sleepovers are fun

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I loved reading all your comments that I will respond to soon. They make my day! Hope you guys enjoy this chapter! (Also I'd apologize for the cliffhanger but I'm not sorry :))

Daichi turned around in shock. From the corner of his eye he could see Tsukishima trying to run away but being held in place by Hinata and Yamaguchi.

“What in the world are you doing here.” He finally decided to say to the rooster-headed captain wearing the most annoying looking smirk on his face, Kenma standing next to him holding a video game as usual.

“Now, now, Sawamura. Is this how you greet old friends?”

Daichi stared for a couple more seconds before sighing and extending his hand out while feeling a smile stretch across his face. They shook hands, each of them trying to squeeze the life out of the other. Before Daichi could ask again what Kuroo and Kenma were doing here, the gym door was slammed open with ridiculous force.

“HEY HEY HEEEEYYYY!!”

“Bokuto-san please don’t slam other people’s gym doors open.”

“HINATA DID YOU GET TALLER YET!”

Daichi stared in shock as Bokuto, Akaashi, and for some reason Lev all walked through the door wearing their respective volleyball uniforms. After the initial shock, Daichi just sighed in defeat. He wished he could say this was the strangest thing to happen recently, but it wasn’t.

The Karasuno players began to laugh and greet the other people that had arrived (except for Tsukishima who was still trying to escape the gym without being spotted by more annoying third years.)

The players from Aoba Johsai had gathered around together confused until Iwaizumi clicked his fingers and pointed at the guy with two-toned hair that had currently managed to get Tsukishima in a headlock.

“That guy is Koutaro Bokuto! He’s one of the top five aces in the country! How does he know Karasuno?”

“Of course _you_ would know what the top five aces look like Iwa-chan.”

“Trashykawa I distinctly remember you crying last month when that Miya guy got the best setter ranking for the second year in a row and you began listing setters across the country who were better than him, yourself being at the top of the list.”

Oikawa began to blush and protest as the other guys laughed until they noticed Daichi and Sugawara walking up with Kotarou Bokuto and the other guy that Daichi called Kuroo.

“This is the team that’s been using our gym with us. Guys this is Bokuto the captain of Fukorodani, he’s one of the top five aces in the nation.”

As Bokuto beamed, the other guy next to him said: “Yeah unfortunately he's not number three anymore, what a shame!”

Bokuto squawked: “Oh yeah well this is Kuroo Tetsuro who thinks he's sooo cool but he’s not known for being on any top rankings so there!”

“And this is Kuroo captain of Nekoma, they're another Tokyo team that we plan on defeating at nationals.” Daichi ignored Bokuto’s introduction

“OI! You crows are going down!”

Daichi rolled his eyes and began making introductions. When Bokuto found out that Iwaizumi was the ace of the team he tackled him in excitement and began talking about his favorite moves. Iwaizumi was staring at Bokuto with awe while Oikawa, Hanamaki, and Matsukawa were laughing at him from the side for looking so starstruck.

As the third years continued to talk amongst themselves, Hanamaki looked around the room. The guy that first walked in with Kuroo (Kenma he thinks??) was with shorty listening to the ginger talk. The really tall half Russian was with almost all the first years talking to Kindaichi who looked really close to beating him up. (Hanamaki would have to get the details later because Kindaichi’s face was hilarious right now). The Fukorodani vice-captain was being introduced to the Aoba Johsai second years by Ennoshita and the others. Kuroo and Bokuto were winding up Oikawa and Iwaizumi was still staring at Bokuto with amazement, but there was someone missing.

“TSUKISHIMA THERE YOU ARE!” Hanamaki finally spotted the blonde at the very back corner alone who began to try and slink away once spotted, fortunately Suga was very familiar with his disappearing acts and dragged him over to the third years huddle.

Before Hanamaki could say anything to his salty little first year buddy, Kuroo and Bokuto immediately zeroed in on him.

“Heeeeyyyyy Tsukkiiiii….”

“Tsukkipooooooo we missed youuuuu.”

“Could you both get off me please? I don’t want to lose IQ points for being in your presence for too long.”

“Now, now, is that anyway to speak to your houseguests?”

“I literally never agreed to that. You idiots could be homeless for the weekend for all I care.”

Daichi paused in his conversation with Asahi and said: “Wait you guys all came to sleep over at Tsukishima’s house?”

“No they did not.”

“Yeah, your prefecture has Friday off this week too, right? We had an extended weekend, so we decided to surprise our favorite non-Tokyo team.” Kuroo kept grinning as Tsukishima continued to try his escape. Honestly Tsukishima fully blamed Hinata for this mess, after all he was the one that started the third gym group chat after training camp _and_ he mentioned that Tsukishima’s parents were gone for the month and his older brother was still at university meaning he had the house to himself.

“I never said you could come. The only people I would trust in my house are Kenma and Akaashi.”

“Tsukki so cold.”

“That’s alright Kurobro! We’ll just wait until he lets us in, after all we all know Tsukkipoo secretly thinks we’re the greatest non-Karasuno senpai ever!” (Bokuto may not be the brightest, but even _he_ wasn’t dumb enough to call himself Tsukki’s favorite senpai while Sugawara was glaring daggers at him).

Hanamaki felt his eye twitch and smirked. Looking to his side he glanced at Matsukawa who had a similar expression on his face. They decided it was time to make themselves known.

“Excuuuuse you. Tsukki totally likes us more.” Bokuto looked behind him where the two tall Aoba Johsai players stood side by side trying to look threatening. Kuroo got a dangerous gleam in his eye that would have made Sugawara proud.

“Oh? And what have you done for our dear little Tsukkipoo?”

“I’m literally standing right here you guys.”

“We’ve totally done more for him than you Tokyo _kids_ ever have.”

“Oya? How about we put that to the test?”

“We’re definitely up for the challenge.” Hanamaki and Matsukawa stood side by side with their arms crossed trying their best to look intimidating.

Kuroo looked at Bokuto and grinned. “Alright, you two are coming over to Tsukki’s house tonight for a sleepover too. Then we’ll see who the best non-Karasuno senpai are once and for all!”

They shook on it ignoring all of Tsukishima’s protests for the next two hours of practice.

* * *

Tsukishima wanted to die. Actually no he wanted to bury Hinata and every single third year he had ever met. (Except for Daichi and Kiyoko who seemed somewhat sane most of the time.) If you had told him this morning that his house would be raided by people from Tokyo, he would have laughed. Unfortunately, the third gym groupchat was lively and he made the mistake of responding to something Bokuto said. One thing led to another, and when they got to practice, they received a picture of the other members of the group (+ Kenma who wanted to see Hinata) in the Miyagi station. Then to make matters worse they just had to get the other pair of third year idiots involved. The cherry on top was that Yamaguchi’s grandmother came to visit as a surprise and he would be busy all weekend!

He sighed for the nth time that evening, looking around the living room. Kenma, Lev, and Hinata had taken over his PlayStation and were playing some multiplayer quest game that Kenma brought with him, Akaashi was slowly being persuaded to join them because he was like Tsukishima, both were very much trying to ignore the mess in the back at the coffee table.

“HA HA HA HAVE ANOTHER +4 YOU LOSERS!”

“I will murder you.”

“Broooooo were you saving that! Bro you’re so cool!”

“Anything for our broship my favorite bro in the world.”

“You two suck.”

“Oya? Well you lost five times in a row so really the only one sucking is you.”

“I DEMAND WE PLAY A DIFFERENT GAME!”

“Sure if you admit we’re better and that’s why Tsukki likes us more!”

Tsukishima facepalmed while listening to the conversation again. when he tried to ask why they weren’t asking his opinion, he was ignored. He gave up and decided he had to offer them food otherwise his mother would never let him hear the end of it. (She seemed way too excited over text when he said what happened that he was almost scared she was going to cut her trip early just to see if he actually had someone other than Yamaguchi at his house.)

He grabbed some chips and walked over to the third years who had now pulled out Monopoly. When they saw him, he was shoved to the floor by Kuroo.

“Look at this guys! Tsukkipoo brought me some snackies!”

“He literally brought them for all of us.” Hanamaki’s hand was slapped away by Kuroo when he tried reaching out.

“Nope they're all for me and Brokuto.” Bokuto cheered from his place next to Kuroo.

“I seriously don’t get why this is even a competition.” Tsukishima tried one last time.

“Yeah Tsukki’s right, this isn’t a competition because no one can beat me and Makki at monopoly, you Tokyo boys are going down.” Hanamaki cheered and high-fived his friend.

“Oya?”

“Oya oya?”

“Count us in as well.” They looked up at Akaashi and Kenma who had decided to come do damage control. (Well in Kenma’s case he was just getting bored with destroying Hinata and Lev every game.)

“OH HINATA AND I WILL PLAY TOO! WE CAN BE OUR OWN TEAM!” Hinata began jumping up and down in excitement as they sat around the table too.

Tsukishima rolled his eyes and decided it was better to stay and monitor the situation. “Alright then I’ll be the banker. We playing house rules or original rules?”

“House.”

“Game.”

Kuroo looked at Hanamaki incredulously, “I shouldn’t be surprised you would pick game rules. They're as boring as your hair!”

“Oh yeah well at least my hair doesn’t look like it has farm animals living inside it.”

Kenma laughed quietly. “KYANMA STOP LAUGHING WITH THE ENEMY!”

As chattering broke out Akaashi said: “We’ll play by game rules. No need to make things more complicated now let’s begin.”

* * *

“Do I even want to look?” Iwaizumi asked from his place on Oikawa’s bed where while he was reading a magazine, Oikawa’s phone was shoved in his face again.

“Iwa-chan these are the best thing ever.” Iwaizumi sighed and gave in, after all, Mattsun and Makki stopped texting them updates a couple of hours ago so Iwaizumi was a little curious to see what happened.

“You follow Tsukishima on instagram?”

“Of course! I follow all of them now! I need to get my like count up.”

Iwaizumi rolled his eyes and began to swipe through the collection of photos.

The first one was of all of them gathered around a monopoly board looking like they were just about to start playing. Hinata and the tall silver haired kid were picking out what piece to use, the two second years from Fukorodani and Nekoma (Akaashi and Kenma he remembered) were passing out money, and the other four were holding a four-way staring contest. Iwaizumi assumed that Tsukishima was the one that was taking the photo seeing as he was the only one missing.

Swiping he looked at the next photo (which was actually a video) and choked. He didn’t know what had happened but Mattsun’s head was banging against the table, the monopoly board was overturned with pieces everywhere, the second years each had a paper crown saying ‘ULTIMATE CHAMPION’, the third years were having a pillow fight, and Hinata and the other first year were cheering them on. The one of the pillows hit something in the background and they heard a crash and a voice saying: ‘Kuroo-san! I’m gonna tell Yaku-san on you!’

The next photo looked like it was taken by the Nekoma second year because Hinata and Lev were on the floor laughing, while all the third years had kneeled down in shame with Tsukishima and Akaashi glaring at them.

The next photo was at a grocery store where Hinata and Lev were holding large baskets of snacks with a snapchat caption that said: ‘We love wasting our senpai’s money.’

The last photo was a selfie taken by Mattsun where all of them were laying down in a circle in a park showing everyone’s heads with the snapchat caption: ‘We might be lost but at least we have snacks!’

Iwaizumi looked up at Oikawa who had an equally fond expression on his face. “Honestly I expected something like this to happen. There was no way this was going to end well.”

“Well we can't be the only ones wasting our three-day weekend Iwa-chan! Let’s go out for breakfast tomorrow!”

Iwaizumi rolled his eyes and begrudgingly agreed. As he went back to his magazine he wondered if Daichi and the others would say yes to an invite.

* * *

“Well this was fun.”

“Not as fun as watching you guys explain to my mother why her favorite vase is broken.”

“IT WAS AN ACCIDENT!” 

“Don’t care.”

Everyone laughed as they watched Kuroo try to reason with Tsukishima, the latter refusing to entertain his excuses. As everyone else was talking quietly amongst themselves, Akaashi looked over to the two boys from Aoba Johsai.

“Hanamaki-san. Matsukawa-san. I have a question if you don’t mind.”

“Yeah sure thing ‘Kashi ask away.”

“I'm afraid I still don’t fully understand why you’re sharing a gym with Karasuno, do you mind explaining?” Everyone else paused their conversations, also curious with what they’d hear.

Matsukawa looked at Hanamaki and nodded at him. Hanamaki looked upwards at the stars before he began speaking.

He told them about the fire and how frustrating it was, how it happened so randomly, how Oikawa and Iwaizumi tried investigating at the police station. Then he talked about their slimy principal and how he kept turning the tables on them and how they could cost their coach his job if they aren’t careful. Finally he mentioned the most recent attempt of investigation and how Kiyoko thinks there is something significant about the dug-up ground.

Hanamaki paused, not sure how to continue. He looked back down and noticed identical looks of rage and disbelief across the Tokyo players. Kuroo put his hand on Hanamaki’s shoulder.

“Listen. We’ve barely known each other for a few hours but you all seem like genuine folk. Even if you weren’t, the shady stuff that’s going on in your school is not right. If you guys need any help or additional manpower you can count on Nekoma to help you out, after all our motto is to stay together.” Kenma and Lev nodded at their captain’s words.

Not wanting to be outdone, Bokuto launched himself at Matsukawa and said: “Don’t worry Mattsun! Fukorodani will totally help out too! We’ll get your gym back!”

They laughed and thanked their new friends. Lev then asked: “I have a question. If you think your principal is doing some shady stuff, but can't prove it, why don’t you try catching him doing something shady? Then you would have more proof wouldn’t you?”

“What did I say?” Lev asked when he noticed everyone staring at him.

Kuroo shook his head with a fond smile, “Yaku isn’t going to believe me when I tell him a half decent idea actually came out of your mouth. But the Russian titan has got a point. If you wanna accuse someone you need the proof. Get the proof then we can attack the guy head-on.”

“Or get the proof and blackmail him.” Kenma said as he turned back to his phone, oblivious to the stares of disbelief from everyone.

They all grinned and began to make up wild conspiracy theories about what shady stuff their principal was doing. As the moon rose higher and the air got colder, the boys made their way back to Tsukishima’s house where they pulled out spare futons and cushions and began to get ready for bed.

Once they had laid down, Kuroo turned to Hnamaki who was in the futon next to him and whispered just as the other was falling asleep: “By the way, I'm still Tsukki’s favorite.”

“OH HECK NO!”

“ALL OF YOU SHUT IT!”

* * *

The next day, the four third years left their underclassmen at Tsukishima’s house watching Hinata and Lev having a pancake eating contest and went to a popular diner where Oikawa, Iwaizumi, Daichi and Sugawara were waiting. Asahi and Kiyoko couldn’t make it but sent their regards.

“So did you guys have fun losing all your money?” Sugawara smirked.

“Oh shut up Suga. We’re just being good senpai that get our kouhai whatever they want.” Kuroo snarked as he looked through the menu.

Daichi rolled his eyes and began making sure everyone knew what to order. Oikawa and Iwaizumi were catching up with their classmates while Sugawara had managed to successfully convince Bokuto if he ate five stacks of pancakes in 10 minutes then the restaurant would give him money.

As Daichi finished speaking to the waiter he felt his phone ring. “It’s Kageyama.” He said when Sugawara looked at him questioningly.

“Oh put it on speaker I wanna say hi! Everyone shut it!” Daichi put it on speaker.

“Hello?”

“Daichi-senpai. I overheard something strange. It’s about the fire at Aoba Johsai.”

“Woah Kagyeama, where are you?”

“I’m in town to get groceries. Should I come see you?”

Daichi told him their location and once he hung up, they all looked at each other with apprehension. Kageyama couldn’t get to the restaurant fast enough. 


	10. Chapter 10

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> More senpai-kouhai bonding. and a mysterious discovery is made!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> so I binge read the Promised Neverland in 2 days after I finished the anime. it was great and now I'm having withdrawal symptoms. sorry for being later than usual!

Kageyama walked into the diner and noticed that the group had split into two. There was a table that was only the Aoba Johsai third years and another table with the other four. Iwaizumi beckoned him over to their table and pulled out a chair for him.

“We decided it was better if you tell us first before everyone else, if you don’t mind.” Kageyama nodded, he wasn’t exactly sure how they would react when they heard what he had to say. Noticing everyone looking at him, he steeled his nerves and began speaking.

“I was in the grocery store because I ran out of a few things. While I was checking out the fruits, I noticed two men from the corner of my eye. I didn’t think there was anything out of the ordinary but when they walked past me, I heard them mention the name Irihata. I didn’t know if it was coach, they were talking about, but I decided to listen just in case.” Kageyama paused, unsure how to continue before finally saying:

“They said he's going to be fired. This Monday.”

“WHAT!” Hanamaki screeched causing the other diners to give the table dirty looks. Matsukawa hit his shoulder and asked Kageyama:

“And? Did they say anything else?”

“Um……yeah they did.” Kageyama didn’t say anything else.

The others stared at him in anticipation before Oikawa had enough:

“Tobio-chan stop with the dramatic pauses and just tell us!”

“They said it was because of the investigations! Because ‘Irihata can’t control his nosy, know-it-all students.’ I’m sorry.” He looked at each of them in turn, noticing the heartbreak on each of their faces. Oikawa in particular looked extremely distraught. Kageyama was hoping to avoid telling them that last part but Oikawa’s nagging made him loose resolve quickly.

“Coach Mizugochi knew what was going to happen.” Iwaizumi said blankly. “That’s why he told us not to blame ourselves.”

“Thank you Kageyama. I think we need to discuss this amongst ourselves if you don’t mind. Unless you have anything else to say.” Matsukawa tried to make the dismissal sound as polite as possible. Kageyama nodded, bade farewell to the others and went back to the store where he had left his groceries.

* * *

As he walked back to his house, Kageyama felt very conflicted. On one hand, he knew it was the right thing to tell the others, on the other hand, he knew they must be very upset right now. Kageyama decided to call the one person who knew how to deal with his lack of emotional understanding .

After a few rings he picked up.

“Bakayama!”

“Oi! Stop calling me that you idiiot!”

“Nope! But this is weird! I’m usually the one that has to call your idiot self, first. What’s going on?”

“I……may possibly need to ask your opinion on something.”

“KAGEYAMA WANTS MY ADVICE! TSUKKIIII DID YOU HEAR THAT!”

Ah Kageyama forgot that Hinata was with the others at Tsukishima’s house. He was invited as well but yesterday was his monthly call with his sister and he didn’t want to miss it.

“OI! STOP BEING SO LOUD YOU IDIOT I DON’T WANT STINGYSHIMA TO GET INVOLVED!”

“Don’t worry your majesty, it’s not as if the humble peasants like me would be able to solve your royal problems.”

Before Kageyama could reply, he heard a smack and a lot of movement until finally Hinata’s voice was heard.

“Sorry about that! I’m outside alone right now so what’s up Yama-Yama?”

Kageyama told him what he had heard and how upset the third years had appeared. Hinata was silent for a long time before finally saying:

“I think you did the right thing. I mean it sucks just like everything else about this, but it’s good that you warned them before they could be even more surprised. To be honest, I wish we could help them out more, don’t you?”

Kageyama thought about that. Sure Oikawa was as annoying as ever, but after that closet incident the mean comments seemed to be more like Tsukishima’s sarcasm than actual hate. Even Kindaichi and Kunimi weren’t avoiding him as much, although he still hasn’t had a proper conversation with those two yet. Everyone else was friendly enough (Kyoutani was an exception but Kageyama could have sworn he saw him helping out Yachi the other day) and no one deserved to have volleyball taken away from them.

“Yeah, I guess you’re right. I guess if something comes up we should try to help.”

After a bit more idle chatter from Hinata telling him about Lev trying to make Russian food only to almost burn down Tsukishima’s kitchen, he hung up feeling much better about the entire situation.

* * *

Kageyama was jogging in the park later that day, due to no gym for the weekend he was hoping to get in some exercise before those clouds got worse and it rained. Unfortunately for him, he wasn’t the only person with that idea. Kageyama was looking around and did a double take when he saw a figure lying on the ground, panting as if they had run a marathon. He debated whether or not to say something before the person sat up and saw him.

“Oh great it’s Tobio-chan. Are you stalking me?”

“Um..no? I’m running here Oikawa-senpai.”

“That was a joke you dolt.”

Kageyama scrunched his face. He wanted to say something about this morning but didn’t know what to do. Eventually a voice in his head that sounded annoyingly enough like Hinata’s voice, told him to just go for it.

“Are you okay Oikawa-senpai?”

“What.” Oikawa had stood up to face him.

“Are you okay? You seemed……upset earlier today.”

“I’m fine Tobio-chan, now leave me alone. Go on.” Oikawa waved his hand in dismissal, but Kageyama caught a tremor in his hands. Well now he knew something was wrong.

“Oikawa-senpai……are you sure? Its….okay if you're not.” (Another thing his sister always used to say to him when he was upset.)

Oikawa stared at him. Right now, Oikawa wasn’t sure if he wanted to punch his kouhai or hug him. honestly the most emotionally clueless person he had ever met, was asking him if he was okay? Oikawa was doing great thank you very much. He was doing fine. It’s not like he single-handedly ruined a teacher’s career and their entire future, all because he was impatient. It’s not like he wasn’t already a failure that was reduced to watching and helping another school achieve his dream of going to nationals. It’s not like-

“Tobio-chan seriously _I AM NOT A DOG_!!!!”

Kageyama continued to pat Oikawa on the head, ignoring the strange looks from people passing by. Oikawa had started to hyperventilate again so Kageyama had tried to do what seemed to work last time. It seemed to be working again, or at the very least Oikawa’s anger was directed somewhere else.

After a couple of minutes Oikawa shoved off the patting hand and tried to discreetly wipe his eyes. (It wasn’t very discreet but Kageyama chose to ignore it.)

“Alright Tobio-chan. If you pat me like that again I will hurt you.”

“Sure.”

“Ugh whatever. Now if you’ll excuse me I need to go think about what to do next.”

“I actually had a question. I know there’s probably nothing you can do to stop what's happening to coach in a couple of days, but if you guys could prove that the principal did something wrong, wouldn’t they have to give him back his job?”

“Well yeah but we have no leads right now. Wait a second!” Oikawa grabbed Kageyama’s shoulders and shook him.

“We have a lead! Come on Tobio-chan!”

Kageyama stared at his senpai’s retreating back for a before following along.

* * *

Oikawa led them to Aoba Johsai after a fair amount of running. The gates were closed and after confirming that the rotating security cameras were pointed in the other direction, they scaled the gate and went to the ruins.

Kageyama had seen pictures on the news but seeing it in person made it feel a lot more real. The leftovers of a might powerhouse looked awfully small. Oikawa bypassed that and started looking around the ground.

“Tobio-chan. I want you to look for ground that’s not as hard as the rest or looks like it’s been dug up recently.”

Kageyama nodded and kept looking, finally he stumbled upon something that looked darker than the other parts.

“Oikawa-senpai!” He asked Oikawa if they needed to be careful with guards and security, but Oikawa said they would be in and out too quick for them to realize.

Oikawa jogged over. “Well done Tobio-chan! You’re not completely useless after all! Now help me dig this up.”

They began to quickly dig and dig the ground before finally they stumbled upon a hard, black box. It looked like there was a lot more to it, but before they could begin investigating, they heard security coming to do rounds on this side.

“Quickly cover up the ground! They can't see the hole!”

They frantically shoved dirt over the hole before sprinting away from the school, with Oikawa carrying the black box.

* * *

After some walking where Oikawa kept tossing and turning the box in his hand, the weather had begun to take a turn for the worse. The rain began to pour so suddenly that Kageyama didn’t even have time to search for cover before they were both thoroughly soaked.

Oikawa turned to Kageyama, the black box shoved under his jacket to try and keep it dry. “My house is too far away from here! Where do you live?”

Kageyama scanned the area fast.

“It’s 5 minutes if we run Oikawa-senpai!”

And run they did.

* * *

Iwaizumi was sitting on his bed, watching the storm rage outside, the occasionally bouts of thunder causing the house to tremble slightly. He had half a mind to call Oikawa, the idiot had said he wanted to be alone on his run today and hadn’t said anything, yet which was very unusual.

As he was about to try and ring him up, his phone started to ring.

“Umm hello?”

“Hey Iwaizumi! How’s it going?”

“Yo Daichi. I’m good. What's going on?”

Before Daichi could answer he heard another voice screeching in the background: “HE’S STEALING MY KOUHAI DAICHI I WILL MURDUR HIM! WHY WAS I NEVER INVITED OVER!”

“Sorry about that Iwaizumi. Just wanted to give you a heads up that you should probably keep Oikawa away from Suga for a few days, for his own safety.”

“Umm what?”

“You didn’t see?”

Iwaizumi finally checked his phone and went on his Instagram feed at Daichi’s request. He saw the first photo and chocked.

It was a picture of Oikawa in another person’s living room. Not only that, his arm was wrapped around Kageyama as he took the selfie with his trademark smirk and wink. Kageyama to his credit, didn’t look annoyed, only confused. The caption was: ‘Tobio-chan invited over his favorite senpai to his house for some bonding! Isn’t it great to be the best?’

Iwaizumi sighed and decided that if his best friend wanted to trigger Sugawara on purpose, he could deal with the consequences himself.


	11. Chapter 11

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> What is the black box? And why did coach get fired?

The next day, Oikawa and Kageyama went to Tsukishima’s house along with the rest of the third years from both schools. When Oikawa had called his classmates and told them what happened, Matsukawa had mentioned that the second year from Nekoma is really good with technology and he could probably help. Now they were all milling around in the Tsukishima living room watching Bokuto and Iwaizumi arm wrestle each other. (They had been tied for the past 10 minutes and Oikawa didn’t know what was scarier, finding someone that could keep up with Iwaizumi or the fact that Sugawara kept glaring at him like he was plotting murder.)

“Yo people. Kenma says he's got something.” Kuroo walked back into the living room with Kenma trailing behind him.

“So…um…” Kenma didn’t like that all eyes had suddenly turned to him, but if what he thinks is right, then this could be dangerous. “It’s a switch to put it simply.”

“Like the Nintendo one?” Lev asked out loud before yelping when Kuroo hit him.

Kenma sighed and explained. “Basically it means that if you have this somewhere, then you can like….flip a switch and trigger some kind of reaction somewhere else, which can put you out of harm’s way if you're trying to set off something dangerous.”

The players mulled over what this might mean.

“Am I correct to assume that this means there may have been something in the building that was ready to trigger the fire, and they needed to plant this device to make it happen?” Kiyoko asked from her place at the side. Kenma nodded eagerly.

“Wait so can you tell us what it triggers?” Iwaizumi asked hopefully.

“No. I can only tell you that it does trigger something. It’s not that specific. Sorry. But now you guys have another lead I guess.”

Everyone was silent, staring at the Aoba Johsai players. Finally, Kenma decided to speak up again.

“Um. I don’t know if this’ll work, but what about getting some security camera footage? If you’re a private school that has cameras then I'm sure you could find something on them.”

“That’s brilliant!” Oikawa exclaimed as he began to think of ways they could get the footage recordings. People began to brainstorm until Kuroo stood up a few minutes later.

“Well people, this was fun but us Tokyo kids have to catch the train. We’ll see you all soon.” Kuroo smirked as everyone began making rounds to say goodbye.

When the Tokyo players left, Oikawa turned to look at everyone else.

“Alright people. Next mission is to get that camera footage!”

* * *

When the weekend was finally over, the Aoba Johsai players all arrived early to school in hopes of finding one particular person. Unfortunately, when they got there they were too late.

“He’s already gone.” Yahaba said brokenly, staring at the cleared-out office that was once occupied by Coach Irihata.

“Unfortunately Yahaba-kun, you were too late to see him.” a condescending voice spoke behind them. They turned around and saw the principal staring at them, a dangerous gleam in his eyes.

“Daisuke-san. Is there nothing that can bring Coach Irihata back?” Oikawa hated begging the man, but his coach’s wellbeing was more important.

“He refused to comply with my terms, unfortunately that meant he was cut. You would know about this Oikawa-kun, you are a captain after all.” He grinned.

Oikawa spoke again, just barely able to control the anger in his voice. “Yes sir. If you don’t mind me asking, one leader to another, what was the condition that he failed to comply with?”

The principal’s grin became sharper. “I’m glad you asked Oikawa-kun. I told Irihata that troublemakers in school need to be taught a lesson, unfortunately he was too soft. So instead of expelling……certain wrongdoers in school, he took their blame on himself and I expelled him instead. I’m sure you’ll all agree that’s fair.”

He began to walk away from the horrified looks on the player’s faces before turning around one last time. “I do hope those troublemakers don’t do anything else, after all, there’s only so much staff that would be willing to lose their jobs over their students.”

When the principal had left the corridor, Coach Mizugochi came out of his hiding place towards the back.

“Hey boys.”

“Coach!” They all exclaimed, a mixture of excitement and broken heartedness.

“Don’t blame yourselves. No matter what you just heard, Irihata was already walking on thin ice for trying to question the destruction so what happened was inevitable.” Coach Mizugochi tried to have a comforting smile but knew that until they could speak to their head coach personally, they wouldn’t be assured. 

* * *

The rest of the day passed by slowly, each of the players deep in thought and anger. They were so deep in thought, that when they went to Karasuno for practice with Coach Mizugochi, they almost didn’t notice the third adult standing there looking quite strange in black and white instead of teal.

“COACH!” They ran towards their smiling coach who welcomed them all warmly. After a few minutes for everyone to calm down, (Or in Kindaichi’s case, stop crying), he smiled.

“Oikawa, Iwaizumi, Matsukawa, Hanamaki.”

“Yes sir!”

“You four disobeyed my direct orders to not get involved didn’t you.” The four winced and began to apologize before they were silenced with a raised hand.

“I’m glad you stuck by your convictions. I'm proud of you. All of you.” He turned to the rest of the players nodding to them as well. “No blaming anyone here. We all know the person to blame and unfortunately, he's won this round.” The players nodded angrily.

“Now as you’ll all notice, I'm wearing Karasuno colors. That is because thanks to Takeda-sensei, Karasuno is formally employing me as an assistant coach.”

They looked at Takeda-sensei in awe before bursting out with thanks and praises. Daichi walked up to Takeda-sensei and looked like a parent about to lecture their child.

“Takeda-sensei. Were you begging again?”

“Of course not!! It was just some light pleading! There’s a difference!” He quickly tried to justify himself to his students as Daichi, Sugawara, and Tanaka shook their heads in disappointment.

* * *

“Alright now boys! Enough chit-chat! We need to get to work!” Coach Ukai yelled out.

“Oh and you Aoba Johsai third years can spend the next 30 minutes doing suicide runs.”

“Wait WHY!” Oikawa yelled out.

“I did say you defied my explicit orders didn’t I? I can't let you get away punishment-free.” Coach Irihata smirked at his eldest players and walked to the other side of the gym to ignore their protests.

Everyone laughed at their misfortune, and if Sugawara accidentally let a few balls past him to hit Oikawa while he was running, it wasn’t his fault. It was purely an accident. 

* * *

“Alright we need to figure out how we’re going to get camera footage.” Oikawa was sitting on Iwaizumi’s bed with the rest of the team in various parts of his room.

“Can't we just force them to give it to us?” Kyoutani growled from the corner. Before Oikawa could respond with all the things wrong with that plan, Yahaba threw a pillow and hit him in the face.

“OI!”

“Stop being an idiot and give us a useful suggestion. Then you won’t get hit with a pillow”

“He’s got a point bro.” Watari said from the side. Kyoutani growled at his year mates but said nothing else.

“We’re going to have to make a copy of it from the security offices.” Kunimi said from the side. “That’s the easy part. The hard part is getting access to the security offices without getting caught.”

They sat in silence again, completely stuck. The security offices were in the same area as the principal and rest of the administration’s offices. This would be tricky.

“I think the first step would be to do some surveillance. That way we can know how hard it actually is to access the area.” Oikawa nodded at Iwaizumi’s plan. It was agreed that the third years would spend a couple of days trying to figure out the best way to get access and report back at the end of the week.

* * *

A couple of days later, the third years were sitting in the corner of the Karasuno gym looking thoroughly defeated.

“Wow. I haven’t seen a group of people this depressed since Kiyoko told Tanaka and Nishinoya that she wasn’t coming to the beach with us.” Sugawara smirked as he and Daichi walked up to their depressed counterparts.

Daichi rolled his eyes. “What's the matter? No one else is in trouble are they?”

“No but at this point we’re stuck.” Hanamaki said.

“It’s that stupid principal. He's got his eye on us so much so that I haven’t had time to eat in break this entire week. There’s always a teacher that needs my help, or some third-year thing we have to do! And he's always lurking around the third-year corridor now too!” Matsukawa exclaimed angrily. The others nodded in agreement.

“Okay and the problem is….” Daichi trailed off looking confused.

“The problem is, Sawamura, that how are we supposed to get intel on the security of the footage room when we can't even get there.”

“I don’t get why your underclassmen can't do it. I mean it doesn’t seem like they're being targeted, and Watari and Kunimi are definitely inconspicuous enough to pull it off.” Daichi shrugged.

There was silence as the four stared at each other in mild shock, heat rising in their faces. They had been so focused on figuring it out themselves, that they completely forgot their team was more than willing to help out!

“We were hoping you’d realise you can't do it all alone sooner or later.” Yahaba walked up to them.

“Why didn’t you say anything sooner?” Hanamaki asked.

“We didn’t want to make you guys feel worse than you already did because we knew you’d find some way to blame yourselves if something happened to us, like you did with coach, but now that you can see you have no other options. Also we were hoping that it would be much simpler than what is going on, but now that we can see that this is a more serious situation than we though, we realize we've been neglecting our duties as members of this team too even if you didn't want to involve us at first. This is me telling you that your kouhai will help you more from here on out. Captain’s orders.” He added cheekily.

They grinned and decided that their kouhai would work on surveillance while they would figure out how best to make a distraction. When Oikawa mentioned this out loud, Sugawara grinned.

“Tanaka! Nishinoya! Get over here!” The two second years ran over with excitement.

“What's up Suga?”

“If I wanted to get somewhere I wasn’t supposed to go, how would you guys help me do that?”

Tanaka grinned. “Easy! Fake fight far away from any teachers, then get someone to go running to the place you need to get into and call whoever’s there to help out.”

“Yeah and if they don’t come at first, then you have to send someone who will cry easily cuz crying totally makes people listen to you!”

“Or you could use a stink bomb to make them evacuate!”

“Or pull the fire alarm! Or pay someone to pull the fire alarm!”

“Or hire someone to cut the power to the entire school and then you have to have everyone leave!”

“Or spill a bunch of water and watch people slide and break their bones!”

“Or knock off someone’s wig with a volleyball!”

“Okay we get it you guys.” Daichi held his hand up to pause their tirade.

Oikawa was pensive. “Those are some pretty good ideas. Except that last one, I don’t know how anyone would be stupid enough to knock a wig off of someone’s head.” He was confused when Daichi turned pale and the other Karasuno players began laughing.

“Never mind that. The point is that now, we have a better idea of what this plan should be.” Iwaizumi grinned dangerously.

* * *

The players all looked at each other in anticipation while standing in the third-year corridor during break. Two weeks later, their plan was finally ready to get into play.

“Let’s have some fun.” Oikawa smirked.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> sooooo this took longer to upload than usual but I do have chapter plot points planned out so hopefully it won't take as long next time! Oh I also started a new series focusing on our Kittagawa daichi boys if you want to check it out in my profile!! 
> 
> Hope everyone is having a good day and staying safe!


	12. Chapter 12

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> the aftermath of the plan and some waiting around

Oikawa was the team captain, so usually he was the one giving speeches and scolding people (Iwaizumi did the scolding, but Oikawa likes to pretend he does too), so the feeling of sitting on the floor, looking thoroughly chastised was completely foreign to him. 

Daichi paced back and forth, the Seijoh third years all sitting on the floor sheepishly. In the back of the clubroom, Suga was silently crying of laughter, and Asahi was looking more nervous than usual. As Daichi was about to open his mouth again, the door to the clubroom opened and Kiyoko walked in.

“Michimiya said it was an emergency?”

“Oh man Kiyoko you will not believe what ended up happening to these idiots! They’re suspended for the rest of the day and have detention for a week!” Sugawara was now in hysterics, clutching onto Asahi to keep himself standing.

“Shut up Mr. Refreshing! No one asked you!” Oikawa turned around and seethed.

“Enough out of both of you. Kiyoko all you need to know is that these guys are idiots and they came here because they had nothing better to do and were wondering if they could use the gym early because they can't be in school for the rest of the day.”

“I don’t think that is allowed. Last I checked, the basketball team was fighting for greater gym allocation times so they might be in there now. That’s also something you need to talk to their captain about.”

Daichi groaned. Sometimes he wondered if he should graduate at all, because leaving Ennoshita to deal with all this next year would be too evil.

“If I may ask, what exactly happened with your plan that went so badly, and where is the recording?”

The third years all groaned and before they could begin speaking and defending their actions, the bell rang.

“Sorry. Us responsible third years have to get to class now!” Sugawara winked as he grabbed Daichi’s arm to drag him out, telling the Seijoh boys to stay in the clubroom. The four boys groaned again as they realized they probably should have come up with a less ambitious plan….. and tried not to improvise on the spot too much.

* * *

“Suga we both have a free period now. Where are you going?”

“Oh the faculty lounge. Don’t you think our new assistant coach would loooooove to see his old students!”

“No, you sadist. Now let’s go study.” Daichi at the end of the day was still physically stronger, so he tightened his grip on Sugawara’s arms and dragged him to an empty classroom to get some studying done, all while trying to ignore his best friends whining at how much of a spoilsport he was. 

* * *

It was a testament to how much Oikawa and Kageyama’s relationship improved recently, that the second practice started and the Karasuno players heard what happened to the older Seijoh students, he walked up to Oikawa and said:

“Oikawa-san. I told you if you kept banging your head against the wall, then all the smartness would leave. Even I wouldn’t do something that dumb.”

Oikawa’s eye twitched and he started chasing Kageyama around the gym-until Sugawara ‘discreetly’ stuck out his foot and tripped him up. Before the two third years could fight, the rest of Seijoh arrived.

The third years flinched. It was one thing to be told off by someone your age but having all your kouhai look at you like you're a bunch of idiots was not a fun feeling, especially when one of those kouhai was Kyoutani, who was very well known for having bad ideas.

Yahaba walked up to the third years that had their heads bowed in shame.

“Luckily, despite your incompetency, we managed to get the files. Unluckily, Kunimi found that they were encrypted so after discussing it with the Karasuno players, Hinata sent copies over to the Nekoma setter who’s apparently really good at this stuff. For the next two weeks until we hear back from him I am begging you guys to please grow up.” Yahaba ranted.

“Daaaaaamn. Yahabro got a backbone now!” Tanaka and Noya looked way too pleased with themselves. Watari smiled and Kyoutani looked ridiculously smug.

“OI! ENOUGH CHIT CHAT! GET TO WARMUPS!” Coach Ukai had arrived with Coach Irihata.

Everyone ran to start practice, all while hoping their coaches didn’t ever find out what they did, otherwise suspension would be the least of their worries.

* * *

During the next two weeks it was easy to see that the volleyball players were on edge, now having to fend off more rumors than ever. Iwaizumi growled as he walked to lunch. Did these idiots not realize he could hear them, or did they just not care?

‘Did you hear what happened to the volleyball team?’

‘Apparently there was a chicken in the principal’s office!’

‘I heard Oikawa tried flirting with the principal himself!’

‘No way! I heard it was the secretary!’

‘Girl apparently there was jello like everywhere.’

‘I wish I was in the volleyball club! It sounds like so much fun!’

Iwaizumi rolled his eyes. Clearly the story had become ridiculously exaggerated and if one more person in his class tried to ask what happened, he was going to punch them. 

Finally, he got to the roof where the other third years were.

“I am going to murder someone. Do these people not know how to shut up?”

“Whatever Iwa-chan. I think our plan worked perfectly.”

The other third years nodded. At the end of the day, they knew some sacrifices would have to be made to get the principal to believe they had given up and getting into enough trouble for a suspension and then lying low, would be the best way to throw him off their scent. None of their kouhai knew of course, otherwise they would have tried to offer themselves up, and none of the older kids were going to tell them because somewhere deep down, they did care about all of them, even Kyoutani.

“Alright so when is that Nekoma setter going to send us the footage? It’s been 2 weeks right.” Oikawa asked Hanamaki and Matsukawa, who had been keeping in touch with Bokuto and Kuroo. 

“The Tokyo qualifiers are today so he’s probably been busy. Top 3 teams get to go this time which means that Nekoma actually has a chance this year even if they lose to Itachiyama and Fukorodani.”

“Oh yes. _Best_ of luck to all of them.” Oikawa rolled his eyes. None of the other third years decided to comment, mostly because they were all feeling the same level of frustration with the entire ‘we have to practice with people that are living our dream’ situation.

* * *

The Seijoh players walked into the Karasuno gym and were greeted with an interesting sight.

Daichi was fuming, which was nothing new, but the rest of the Karasuno players were also fuming with him, even the normally apathetic Tsukishima looked slightly annoyed.

“Wow. What happened here?” Oikawa walked up to the crow team, with his own team trailing behind with slight worry.

“We got a message from Shiratorizawa.”

The Seijoh players all frowned on reflex at the mention of their biggest rivals. Oikawa motioned for Daichi to continue.

“Apparently, they want to have practice matches with us.” Daichi snarled.

“Well…it’s a bit odd but you guys beat them so maybe they want to test their new lineup against you guys?” Yahaba questioned. Daichi shook his head.

“If it was that reason, then we wouldn’t mind. The reason is though, apparently their demon coach told Takeda-sensei that he wants our players to play the same starting lineup they had as practice ‘ _to make sure we don’t embarrass the prefecture at nationals_ ’.”

Oh. The Seijoh players looked at each other in disbelief. Shiratorizawa’s coach was definitely on a whole other level of annoying.

“So you’re moping because he insulted you? Alright stand up we’re having practice matches today.”

“Wait what.”

“You heard me captain-kun. I will not allow you guys to lose even one set to Shiratorizawa and their stupid superiority complex. _You_ are the champions this time now go and rub it in their faces at that practice match and make their stupid coach eat his words. Shiratorizawa never made it past the third round-you guys will. I’ll accept nothing less.”

Oikawa panted at the end of his speech. He had an epiphany earlier today. He hated Karasuno beating them in the semi-finals, but when it came down to it, he hated Shiratorizawa and their superiority complex even more, especially after working so much with Karasuno these past weeks.

The Karasuno players looked at him in awe. Grinning, Nishinoya walked up to Oikawa and poked his chest.

“You’d better aim that monster serve of yours at me. I’ll receive it in one go.”

Oikawa grinned. The rest of the players stood up and got ready for a practice match. Seijoh’s players also got up with excitement. Their captain was right. They may not have the chance to play in nationals right now, but they were going to make sure their friends got as far as possible.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> soooo I didn't explain the plan on purpose because it would be funnier that way...imo :)
> 
> also I love shiratorizawa they're one of my favorite teams mostly because of the Haikyuu-buu bonus chapters (please read them they are the funniest. Tumblr user kuromantic does translations that are awesome) so get ready to meet them soon! 
> 
> also lol my laptop is acting up and I have online classes so thats a combo thats making me paranoid atm so I apologize if I'm not as fast as I was due to saving issues and such. 
> 
> oh also follow me on Tumblr if you guys want! I mostly reblog very random stuff and I've had the account for years so theres a lot of random stuff on there. also you can request stuff for me to write!
> 
> my Tumblr is: [perpetuallyc0nfused](https://perpetuallyc0nfused.tumblr.com)


	13. Chapter 13

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> We finally meet shiratorizawa!!

“Alright does someone want to tell me why none of you are focusing today?” Coach Irihata crossed his arms as Coach Mizoguchi nodded next to him.

They were staring at their players who were standing around the Karasuno gym sheepishly. Karasuno had currently gone over to Shiratorizawa which meant that Seijoh could have it’s own solo practice for a longer period of time on a Saturday. Coach Irihata had wanted to start working on tactics for the upcoming season, but he could see their hearts weren’t in it.

Finally, Yahaba spoke up. “We apologize coach. I think we were all just wondering how the Karasuno vs Shiratorizawa match was going.”

Coach Irihata shook his head. He figured it was something like that after seeing how his players took it personally that Coach Washijo had indirectly called Karasuno unworthy of representing Miyagi. He looked over at his fellow coach and grinned.

“Well, luckily for you, Karasuno was invited to play against them.”

“Yeah coach. But we’re not Karasuno players.”

Coach Irihata walked over to a box on the side of the bench and held up a spare Karasuno Volleyball Club jacket saying:

“Well no you aren’t. But the security guards of Shiratorizawa don’t know that now do they?”

* * *

“Their jackets are too simple. They need flashier designs.” Oikawa kept picking on the sleeves of his borrowed jacket in the bus. Iwaizumi rolled his eyes.

“Coach didn’t say we had to go and yet you were the first one to grab a jacket. You secretly thinking of joining Karasuno or something?”

“Oh please. I just want to see Ushiwaka’s stupid face collapse with sorrow after he loses to them again.”

Hanamaki turned around. “Bold of you to assume Oikawa ever has noble intentions.”

Oikawa screeched his protests as the rest of the bus shook their heads in expatriation. They paused when they noticed themselves pulling up to Shiratorizawa. The first years in particular had their mouths open with awe.

“Oh yeah you first years haven’t been here before have you? They're a stupidly extra, rich, elite private school.” Oikawa grinned at their youngest members.

“Hinata and Kageyama said it was huge….but I thought they were just exaggerating. There is no way a school can be _this_ big!” Kindaichi was impressed and very much intimidated. They got off the bus and were led to an enormous looking gym where they could hear shouts and squeaking of shoes inside.

“Come on you guys, we’re going in from the upper entrance, so we don’t disturb the match.” Coach Mizoguchi beckoned them over.

They walked in from the top and everyone’s eyes immediately zeroed in on the scoreboard.

“They each took a set!” Yahaba whispered. None of the players or coaches below had noticed their guests. They were all too focused on what looked like an intense third set.

The Seijoh players watched intently as Karasuno did another one of their synchronized attacks and groaned when Goshiki managed to receive it. Fortunately, his receive was sloppy making Shirabu struggle to deliver a proper set which allowed Karasuno to block and get the point. Shiratorizawa called for a time out and everyone went to their respective sides.

On the courtside, Kageyama’s eyes flickered to the top and made him do a double take.

“Ummm Captain?”

“What’s up Kageyama? You’ve been doing great so far.”

“Thank you….but what are Seijoh’s players doing here?”

“Wait what.”

Karasuno all looked over to the top and when the Seijoh players noticed them, they began to wave and grin. Daichi shook his head with exasperation. Looks like Coach Irihata’s request for some spare Karasuno jackets finally made sense.

On the Shiratorizawa side, Semi noticed the staring and when he noticed who had come as well, he began to shake Tendo’s arm frantically.

“What’s up Semi-semi?”

“Why is Oikawa wearing a Karasuno jacket?”

The rest of the players began to look to where Semi was pointing and did double takes of their own.

“Ah. Oikawa is here. Maybe he is here to watch us crush Karasuno, although it is too late for him to join Shiratorizawa.” Semi facepalmed.

“Or maybe he's here to watch you numbskulls get YOUR BUTTS KICKED BY KARASUNO SEEING AS THEY’RE BEATING YOU IN THIS SET TOO!”

The players all flinched when their coach decided to get involved.

Sighing, they walked back onto the court.

* * *

Seijoh knew that their cheering may have come off as very obnoxious but there was something very satisfying about Coach Washijo’s annoyed face when Karasuno won the third set, ultimately making them the victors. They rushed down to congratulate their friends, but the happiness didn’t last long.

“Oikawa. I did not know you have transferred to Karasuno.”

Oikawa turned around to face Ushijima with Iwaizumi, Daichi, and Sugawara behind him. 

“Maybe I did, maybe I didn’t. I don’t see how it’s any of your business Ushiwaka.”

“Why would you go to Karasuno when you could have come here?”

“Well I mean this is the second time they beat you. So maybe I wanted to be with the strongest team.” Ushijima’s eye twitched.

“Very well. I suppose you have a point there. We did not expect to lose to Karasuno which is why I’m pretty sure coach asked you to come here to make sure it wasn’t a fluke.” Now it was Daichi and Sugawara’s turns to twitch.

* * *

Over to where some of the first years were standing, Hinata looked at the five third years and shivered.

“Man I am glad to not be a part of that conversation. It looks terrifying.” Kindaichi and Yamaguchi nodded in agreement.

“That conversation on the other hand, looks too chaotic.” Yamaguchi said while pointing towards the trio of Hanamaki, Matsukawa, and a very thoroughly annoyed Tsukishima.

Kageyama nodded. “I think all third years have issues.”

“Oh do we now?” The first years jumped as Semi from Shiratorizawa grinned and walked up to them.

Hinata, Kindaichi, and Yamaguchi gulped thinking they were in trouble. Kunimi and Kageyama just stared at Semi impassively. Semi grinned and turned towards Kageyama.

“I have a question for you Kageyama-kun.”

“Um..sure?” Kageyama was confused but figured that Semi is still an upperclassman so he should respect him.

Semi’s grin grew even wider.

“Do you play guitar?”

“Huuuuuuuuh?” Hinata and Kindaichi said. Of all the questions they were expecting Semi to ask, this wasn’t one of them. To their even greater surprise, Kageyama got a faint grin on his face.

“Yeah, since I was a kid. You could tell?”

“Yeah man. That setting precision you have comes from using your fingers a lot. I should know, I play guitar myself after all.”

Kageyama seemed to light up at that. “You do? What kind do you play?”

Semi grinned and slung an arm around Kageyama’s shoulders before leading him off to a corner where they began to have a deep discussion about guitars and music.

Hinata turned to the other four blankly. “Umm what just happened?”

“I think Kageyama got adopted by Semi-san.” Yamaguchi said in awe. To their greater surprise, Semi dragged over his own kouhai Shirabu and began speaking to both of them animatedly. Shirabu looked very annoyed but slowly began to mellow out as the first years continued to watch in awe. 

“Alright everyone! Make sure you thank Shiratorizawa for hosting us and load the bus people!”

The players from Karasuno and Seijoh yelled out their assent and after some friendly (mostly) goodbyes, they walked back to the busses where they made their way back to the high school.

* * *

After the post-match meeting finished, the coaches dismissed everyone, and the players began to mill around as they cleaned the gym and got ready to go home.

“Yo Kageyama who are you texting?” Hinata asked. Kageyama wasn’t a very social person so he was surprised that he was willingly messaging someone on his phone.

Kageyama blushed faintly from embarrassment.

“Um…Semi-san and I exchanged numbers. He wants us to play guitar together sometime so I'm letting him know when I'm available.”

“WHAT!” Hinata did a double take. “YOU’RE MAKING FRIENDS?”

Kageyama began to shake Hinata. “Would you stop acting like I have no friends! I have plenty of friends!!”

“Yeah keep telling yourself that one King.” Tsukishima said from the side. He turned to where the other first years were standing awkwardly.

“Yo. Did the king have friends in middle school or was he always socially inept?”

Kunimi and Kindaichi stared at each other awkwardly before Kindaichi finally spoke.

“Well….the three of us were friends….until stuff happened. But.. I DON’T MIND BEING FRIENDS AGAIN NOW!” He yelled out while blushing wildly, Kunimi nodding his head in assent next to him.

Tsukishima, Yamaguchi, and Yachi stared between the three with various degrees of shock (or in Yachi’s case, relief), while Hinata began to jump excitedly.

Kageyama was frozen in place before he smiled slightly and nodded. Hinata grabbed Kindaichi and Kunimi’s arms, linking his own with them.

“Let’s go celebrate Bakayama making new friends!”

“SHUT IT!”

* * *

In the Yakiniku place, the first years were talking animatedly with each other. Tsukishima and Kunimi were discussing a new music album that had been released yesterday while Kageyama, Kindaichi, and Hinata were having a meat-eating contest with Yamaguchi moderating and Yachi freaking out next to him about the possibility of all of them choking and dying.

Hinata’s phone pinged with a message and he shouted, causing everyone on the table to turn to him.

“It’s Kenma! He sent me the decrypted video!”

They looked at each other with excitement and anticipation while leaning closer. Swallowing down his nervousness at what they were about to discover, hinata clicked on the file and the video began to play.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yes the match wasn't an important focus but thats mostly because we were following seijohs POV and they came late. also yes this was kinda rushed but I wanted to get the plot moving a bit. 
> 
> semi-kageyama friendship is a fun head cannon I have that I dont know how it started. at this point kags will basically get adopted by all the setters except Kenma who only has eyes for hinata. 
> 
> Hope you all enjoyed reading!


	14. Chapter 14

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Following up from last chapter, also people need to stop listening to Oikawa-that's the main point here.

Oikawa and Iwaizumi burst into the Karasuno gym. Kindaichi had texted the Seijoh group chat saying that there was an emergency and he needed the entire team causing all the upperclassmen to simultaneously freak out thinking that someone was hurt. The two friends entered and noticed that they were the last ones there and that Kunimi and Kindaichi were standing at the front, the first years of Karasuno next to them.

“What's going on? No one’s hurt right?” Iwaizumi panted as they took a seat next to the others.

Kindaichi and Kunimi looked at each other before Kunimi took a deep breath and spoke.

“Us first years were out having dinner when Kenma-san sent Hinata the decrypted video. We watched it already, but I’ll send it to you guys now. The main issue is from Kageyama.” He nodded towards the Karasuno setter who stepped forward.

“So um…remember when I was at the store and overheard some guys talking about Coach Irihata being fired?” He got several nods from the upperclassmen, who were growing increasingly worried.

“The video shows a couple of men entering the school early in the morning with a key that unlocked the gates. They had the box that me and Oikawa-san found. Then they went to a blind spot and walked out a couple of minutes later without the box. 15 minutes after that, there was the sound of an explosion and fire inside the building. Those men were the same ones that I saw in the store but according to Kunimi and Kindaichi, they don’t work at your school.”

There was silence as the older members of the team absorbed the information dump they just got. Kunimi decided to continue speaking.

“That black box, Kenma-san messaged us about it too. He said that the design was supposed to mimic a normal electrical box. I didn’t really get the rest of the description, but the point is the box was designed to look like something that should be there, which is why it wasn’t on the police report.”

Oikawa hummed thoughtfully. “Well now things are starting to come together, rather conveniently I might add. ~~(This is due to the author not wanting to make this a mystery story because I can't think of a good mystery plot~~ ) Unfortunately there are a lot more questions as well.” The rest of the team nodded.

“So now what do we do?” Yahaba asked the question on everyone’s minds.

“Isn’t it obvious?” Tsukishima finally decided to speak, growing impatient with the general level of incompetence in the room.

Hanamaki raised his eyebrow. “It doesn’t seem obvious to me. Please enlighten us o wise Tsukki-poo.”

Tsukishima rolled his eyes as he continued. “If you have random people with keys entering your school, with security not questioning anything when they see them, then shouldn’t the next step be to figure out who these guys are? I mean it sounds really suspicious to me and really convenient.”

“Okay that’s actually a good point.” Hanamaki conceded.

“Maaaan it’s too bad we don’t have any facial recognition software like the police do.” Watari groaned.

“Yes we do!” Oikawa jumped up and down while shaking Iwaizumi.

“No.”

“Yes.”

"No."

Yes!"

“I can't ask him that.”

“Do it for the team Iwa-chan!” Oikawa began to drape himself across his friend as he pleaded.

“Oi would you guys care to enlighten us. We’re not all telepathic like you two are.” Matsukawa grumbled.

“Iwa-Chan’s uncle works in the police force. He must have access to this kind of stuff! We just need to ask!”

“I'm pretty sure that’s illegal.” Tsukishima commented.

“Oh please! What's the point of having a high position in your job if you don’t dabble in a little nepotism?” Oikawa said cheerfully, ignoring all the stares.

_“I pity his future employer.”_ Everyone thought simultaneously.

* * *

“I think I figured it out.” Semi spoke from his bed as he lay, scrolling on his phone. His roommate Tendou looked up from his own bed where he was reading some manga.

“Figured out what Semi-semi?”

“Why Seijoh showed up with Karasuno earlier today. Their gym burned down.”

“Woah….” Tendou read the article with some level of disbelief.

“I feel bad for Karasuno as well honestly.” Semi said after Tendou gave his phone back.

“Why are you feeling bad for the people that kicked our butts?”

“I mean Karasuno is a public school. I can't imagine how crowded their gym must be right now trying to host two teams.”

They both sat in silence, deep in thought. A knock on the door caused them to jump out of their skins.

“Wakatoshi-kun!” Tendou said excitedly when Ushijima poked his head in.

“Tendou. Semi. Would you like to join me for some late practice?”

“No way man I refuse.” Semi shook his head furiously. “Last time we practiced this late, we kept seeing strange stuff and then you ended up spiking a ball into coach’s face!”**

Tendou nodded. “Poor Goshiki was left behind. Also on that note, how on earth did coach survive a Wakatoshi spike to the face?”

The three paused as they slowly came to the realization that their coach was probably the most messed up out of all of them.

* * *

In practice the next day, Oikawa announced that Iwaizumi had finally agreed (after an entire hour of non-stop texting from Oikawa when they got home last night on every form of social media) to go ask his uncle for how they would be able to access the database.

As Tsukishima predicted however, he was almost immediately shot down, the main reason being he couldn’t exactly admit that he had copies of the security tapes of school, thus had no good reason for wanting access to such an important database.

The next day in school, he reported back to the other third years. Matsukawa and Hanamaki groaned when they realized that Tsukishima would be lording this over them for the next few days while Oikawa got a dangerous gleam in his eyes.

“Guys…..I think I have an idea.”

* * *

Daichi walked up to the receptionist with waves of irritation coming off of him, followed by a Sugawara that was howling with laughter. The lady looked up at them and smirked, immediately able to guess why they were here.

“Let me guess, you’re here for _those four._ ” She grinned.

Daichi groaned as he picked up a wad of cash and put it on the table. Sugawara’s laughing grew even louder as he began to hyperventilate from lack of control, when the receptionist looked at him in concern Daichi waved his hand.

“Please ignore him. He finds joy in other people’s misery.”

While Sugawara tried to protest, the receptionist signaled someone and a few minutes later, the four third years of Seijoh walked out, their expressions ranging from mortified (Iwaizumi), to suspiciously nonchalant (Oikawa), with Matsukawa and Hanamaki looking like they were in mild shock.

Daichi said nothing, only stalking out once he saw them. They followed until they were in a relatively empty park before he finally turned around, giving them a glare that Hanamaki would swear later on, made him almost pee himself in fright.

“ _How on Earth did you end up in a holding cell_?”

**btw this is actually a thing that happened in the Haikyuu-buu manga so please go read it I swear it’s the funniest thing ever.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Am I continually plugging haikyuu-buu because I'm in love with it? yes I am
> 
> Will I stop? No I will not.
> 
> Hope you guys enjoyed it!


End file.
